The KHL's refusal to grant accreditation to hockey journalists turned into a scandal

The KHL has denied seasonal accreditations to several well-known authors who have been covering the championship for many years. Among them is Alexey Shevchenko, a special correspondent for Sport-Express, who was previously twice recognized as the best journalist of the league. At the same time, the organization has not publicly named specific claims to his work.

For more than 30 years in sports journalism, hundreds of hockey matches, notes and articles, including world exclusives: Alexey Shevchenko was twice recognized as the best KHL journalist, but in the 2026/27 season, the KHL stripped the Sports Express special correspondent of its annual accreditation.

"There is not a single claim formulated. There is one thing — he violated the regulations, but violating the regulations does not mean that someone violated, that is, you show specifically what was violated, but it did not happen," said Alexey Shevchenko, a special correspondent for the Sport-Express newspaper.

Alexey is sure that it's all about his articles, where the special correspondent tries to talk objectively, including about the problems of hockey. The KHL obviously doesn't like being criticized very much, even though that's exactly what a journalist's job is.

"I asked Mr. Dobrokhvalov when the League would recognize and respect hockey players' contracts. They answered me very sharply and, in my opinion, insultingly for the whole League — when we want, then we will. The League doesn't have the right to talk like that, and I wrote about it, adding on my own that it's not very nice. They've been mad at me ever since," Shevchenko explained.

It was in 2025, before the start of the last season, when all the accreditations had already been received. But, obviously, the grievances and claims have not gone away in a year. The same Sergey Dobrokhvalov told a few days ago why the KHL would not work with Shevchenko.

"In this case, there was a specific violation of specific provisions. We have already commented on this too. There is a certain set of Alexey's publications that specifically violated these rules," KHL Vice President Sergei Dobrokhvalov emphasized.

In 15 seconds, the word "specifically" sounded three times, but the specifics were zero. The KHL did not respond to the request of Sport-Express, as well as to the request of Izvestia. In conversations with other media outlets, the League relies on the following points: "The regulation prohibits the use of a profession to distort facts, obliges to respect reputation, and prescribes verifying the accuracy of information." The points are quite logical, but extremely vague. The KHL is still obliged to provide a detailed response to media inquiries, this is a requirement of federal law. By the way, the refusal of accreditation can be challenged in court.

This kind of hockey: The KHL has purged its journalists

The league did not grant accreditation for the 2026/27 season to several well-known media representatives at once - SE issued a statement.

"If the court finds out that the reason for the refusal has nothing to do with a violation of current legislation, then, of course, the court will side with the appealing party, that is, the journalistic community," said lawyer Dmitry Grigoriev.

The KHL's problems are obviously with the community of journalists. In the same Sport-Express, another famous journalist, columnist Yuri Golyshak, was banned from accreditation.

"The very fact of the refusal to one of the most famous journalists in the country, Yuri Golyshak, suggests that the League has problems with the work of the media and in order to convey its position to partners," said Maxim Maksimov, editor—in-chief of the newspaper Sport-Express.

The conflict within Russian hockey is being watched by hundreds of thousands of people, those for whom sports publications and journalists work.

"The audience of hockey journalist Alexey Shevchenko's personal channel is almost 60 thousand people. Almost 20 million people visit the Sports Express page where he works every month. For comparison, the huge ice arena accommodates only 16,000 people," the correspondent noted.

Other well-known reporters and bloggers were also targeted by the KHL. Daria Tuboltseva also did not receive an annual accreditation.

"As a human being, I'm offended and disgusted by this story," she complained.

Leonid Vaisfeld was also deprived of accreditation.

"I asked the head of the League's press service a question, and they answered me. Well, if they think so, then fine. What's the question here? It just makes my job more difficult," said sports commentator Leonid Weisfeld.

Whether the KHL understands that it is impossible to ban journalists from writing about hockey, even if the matches take place inside this particular League, is unknown. Some correspondents won't be able to be in the press area anymore, but they won't stop writing about hockey and its problems, including opaque contracts or controversial refereeing rules, because they love Russian hockey.