Lev Praha withdraws from KHL

The statement on levpraha. com says:

"Statement of shareholders Petr Speychal and Yevgeny Myshkovsky: "After lengthy negotiations, we now have to unfortunately announce that HC LEV Praha will not participate in the 2014/2015 KHL season, because the club failed to secure the necessary funding to continue operating the team at the same level."

This situation is caused by the fact that some major sponsors, such as Gazprom and Škoda JS, refused to continue supporting our club. To date, we filled only half of the budget, which came from from our business operations.

The past year is now financially closed, and the club currently has no unmet financial obligations, either hockey or non-hockey related. Despite the fact we will sit out the coming season, this decision does not rule out the possibility of the KHL returning to Prague in the future, provided the situation regarding finances changes and we manage to create decent conditions. We are not considering moving the team to another city or another league -- the KHL in Prague remains our priority.

At this time, we once again want to thank the fans and sponsors for their support, and the players and management for their work in both seasons played."

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