A top young Dundee ice hockey player was banned from playing in a national cup final and collecting a prized winners’ medal because he larked about before the game in a bear’s costume.
The extraordinary row happened at Fife Ice Arena as the Scottish Under-14 Cup competition reached its closing stages on Saturday.
Pavel Pliskov (14), a pupil at Menzieshill High who came to the city with his family from Lithuania, was celebrating with his Dundee Stars team-mates after scoring three goals and setting up a fourth in the 6-1 semi-final victory over Kilmarnock Storm.
The fun spilled over to a changing room where, hanging on a hook, was the costume of Sam the Bear, the mascot of Fife Flyers ice hockey team.
Other Dundee players passed it round and played with it and Pavel, in high spirits, put it on. He larked around the venue and play-acted to the amusement of other players, coaches and the public.
Officials of the Scottish Ice Hockey Association, though, did not find it funny and told him that because of his behaviour he couldn’t play in the final against Flyers.
Pavel was distraught at the decision but became devastated when, after the Dundee team recorded a resounding 6-0 win, he was stopped from joining his team-mates on the ice to collect the medals.
Pavel said: ”I don’t understand why this happened to me. I think the people who decided this went too far. I really wanted to play in the final and collect my medal, but I was made to sit with the crowd.
“I was so upset that I could hardly watch the game. Some British boys also had the bear suit on but I don’t think anything was done about them.”
Stuart Barnett, coach of the Stars Under-14s said: ”Pavel was larking about, but we told him not to. I think the way this was dealt with was ridiculous way over the top.
”I’m told I am to be put before a disciplinary panel for not having my team under control. I would have thought a letter of apology for wearing the bear’s costume would have been sufficient.
”There was a bit of hilarity but I think it was ludicrous to ban Pavel from the final and not let him get a medal.”
Pavel’s mother Grazina (42) said: ”When he came home he was very upset and said he didn’t want to play ice hockey again. Pavel said it was the worst day of his life.”
Jim Anderson, chairman of the Scottish Ice Hockey Association, defended the decision.
”The boy was put out of the competition for bringing the game into disrepute,” he stated. ”He was in an area he shouldn’t have been, the lady curlers’ changing room, where he got the costume and paraded in it round the ice arena including the bar area.
”The staff challenged him, told him he had no business being where he was and wanted to eject him from the premises. My colleague and I in the association became involved and spoke to the boy in the company of his coach. The coach berated him and told him to apologise and the boy admitted he had been foolish.
”The boy was then told that because of his behaviour he was bringing the name of his club into disrepute and therefore he could take no further part in the competition. This meant he couldn’t go on to the ice and take any further part in the proceedings.
”If a player is banned from a football cup final he can’t go on to the pitch and collect his medal, and our sport is the same.”
Mr Anderson said there has to date been no complaint about the association’s handing of the incident from Dundee Stars Ice Hockey club.