Hockey

Final Update

Update 5

UPDATE 4 3/26/2022 Payment has not been received. It’s still pending on the senders end, they have not verified to the processor (multiple attempts by them to reach sender have not been responded to) . If this changes and payment is received we will update. Otherwise we will not.

No proof of airline tickets being purchased have been received. this was requested multiple times.

Please help! This community has always been supportive of Egypt Ice Hockey and helping developing nations spend the passion for Ice Hockey around the Globe. A certain Hockey Influencer Based in the UK has scammed us for the Past 5 months. He took money ($2000USD) to cover our first ever Ice hockey tournament last October 2021. He was going to come with his film crew (like he has done in another African Country playing Ice Hockey)--***Edit representative from the Kenya Ice Lions has reached out and asked us to name Kenya as the country *** to cover the event. With all the coverage we have received outside of Egypt, it helps us in trying to build North Africas first full size ice rink if we show all the interest worldwide it can provide. This is how our group has been able to gain official recogniaiton from the Egyptian Olympic Committee as the group in charge of developing ice hockey in Egypt (a pivotal step in entering into the iihf).

He canceled his trip and has promised to refund the money 12 times (within 24 hours, to us and a third party who intervened to sort out the situation). We have their passports, messages, emails and many witnesses. We asked for prof that they bought airline tickets for the event and have refused to provide it. We believe no tickets were ever purchased based on the conversation with their camera person who has been responsive. He was just advised the event was canceled. This has been ongoing for 5 months.

They have many sponsors who are well known in the hockey world. They post videos weekly on their social media platforms reviewing equipment. Going public was a last resort but we need advice on what to do and how to handle it. We have confirmed we are not the first program he has done this to. We are NOT asking for donations, we just want our money back to be used for events like this:

Many videos of the event were posted by other social media influencers who did attend. They are NOT who we are referring to.

Event Coverage compiled here:

For Egypt Ice Hockey

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter username- Egypticehockey

UPDATE 1: Disclaimer Egypt Ice Hockey does not have any donation link. Unless posted here or on it is not us. Our intention is to update this thread if our money is returned to our account. The support is amazing and we really appreciate it, this post was intended for advice which we are receiving.

UPDATE 2: We want to once again thank the reddit and hockey community for the overwhelming support. Our intentions were not to name anyone publicly, we only wanted the refund due from last October. We will continue to not name them.

To be clear: As of 6:00pm Cairo time (12:00pm EST) on Friday 3/25/2022 we have not received a refund. In fact the payment company that was referenced in a recently posted video advised us that they tried contacting the influencer yesterday and today via email for verification of their account and payment. No response was given. So the fund has not been sent to us. We have this documentation and call/chat history. This was the App/ payment process he selected. We offered 4 services to provide a refund. This is all documented.

Since October 2021 we have sent 40+ messages on 3 different chats, 7+ emails and countless phone calls to the individual requesting the refund. A third part got involved and had countless additional attempts. This person even flew to the UK (hockey related) and tried to meet up in person to accept cash. Communication stopped once they tried to set a time and place. This was weeks ago.

Now for the video posted

1. The correct wire information was sent via text and email. This is documented.

2. Payment has not been received. The company that he selected for us to pay (originally) and receive the refund - for services not rendered , has advised they tried twice since yesterday to reach out with no response on their part. The money has not been cleared because of this. The minute the payment clears we will post here.

3. If the influencer wanted to keep communication open they would not have left our group chat on December 13, 2021. We added him back on on 1/13/2022 and he left yesterday once again without responding. His camera man stayed in the chat and continued to communicate. Up to today we have not seen a copy of the airline ticket. And to be clear he insisted on purchasing the tickets himself vs us booking them.

4. We understand unforeseen circumstances happen. This is why we waited 5 months and gave every benefit of the doubt, before asking for help.

A-lot of information we are still holding back. The purpose is not to hurt anyone, we just want our funds back and for this not to happen to anyone else.

5 Months of avoidance and broken promises is not a "delay".

UPDATE 3

We are very reluctant to make this update. There has been much internal discussion regarding whether we should update the post with the following information. Unfortunately, the person has outed himself and tried to turn the tables on our organization and skew the details of what happened.

Therefore, we have decided to provide some evidence which we have collected that supports our claims. Our only intention was to recoup the funds which were taken from us and hopefully be able to help any other person/organization which has had a similar experience.

As of this posting the funds transfer has been initiated but has not been finalized. This is because the sender has not responded to the payment processor. If they don’t respond the refund will never be processed. They have reached out yesterday and today (before the video was posted) with no response.

Files:

Link:

1. November 11th 2021 confirmation a “refund” was approved. Not a airline credit.

2. December 6th 2021 reconfirming a "refund" was received. Not an airline credit.

3. March 3, 2022 Third Party tries to meet in UK. No response. Commitment to send funds (again) March 16th (12th? Time)

4. March 25, 2022 AFTER video was posted. Customer services advising they have tried to contact the payer 2x with no response and that the refund can still be cancelled.

refund was initiated AFTER Reddit post.

5. December 13 2021 influencer left group chat addressing this issue.

6. March 24 2022 After being added back, influencer left group chat addressing this issue once again with no response.

*These are not the only items we have.

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Added with permission

opiyo90· COL - NHL

Statement from the Kenya Ice Lions Executives:"The growth of a sport in a country where it barely exists requires a lot of volunteer work, charity donations and support from countries where it’s already set. As such, the organizations, players and teams rely on honesty and trust to build it to a point of self-sustenance. We appreciate those who have seen ice hockey in Africa from a dream to a possibility for future generations to participate in the global stage.

It has come to our attention that various individuals and organizations are participating in fundraising activities on behalf of African ice hockey teams around the world without fulfilling their obligations to the organizations. As such, Egypt Ice Hockey (Egypt Winter Sports) and Kenya Ice Hockey (Kenya Federation of Ice Sports) wish to state that we condemn and disavow individuals and orgs taking financial advantage of upcoming hockey teams.

Any communication on raising charity funds or equipment should go through the approved channels and not through any third parties. Just as the two hockey organizations will hold those taking advantage of African ice hockey teams accountable, so will the ice hockey world.

Queries on whether a donation program is valid to the Kenya Ice Hockey teams can be sent to , Verified Instagram () or Verified Twitter ()."

Signed,Kenya Ice Lions Interim Executive Team.

We believe in the power of sport to build bridges between even the most distanced cultures, and that through such engagement anything is possible. Further. we believe that sport isn’t inherently political in nature, and that geopolitics should never prevent communities from interacting with each other. It was these two beliefs that led us to start the Pyongyang Ice Hockey League which is aimed at creating cross cultural engagement between ordinary people in the DPRK and the international community.

And we’ve proven our assumptions to be accurate. Last year myself and my colleague Gordon Israel travelled to Pyongyang, DPR (North) Korea with a group of international hockey players. It marked the end of lengthy discussions and preparations, during which we negotiated the inclusion of a sports program for individuals with an intellectual disability (ID). We had been told by all external advisors that this would never happen as the DPRK would never let foreigners work with the population in question. In the end, our offer to play hockey was the spark that facilitated our groundbreaking and ongoing efforts to bring disability (ID) sports to the DPRK.

The success of the Pyongyang International Hockey League has led us to start the Howe International Friendship league – a series of events around the world with similar objectives to the PIHL.

You can check out our website here:

My Proof: and

Various sports do a fantastic job of marketing in different countries.

Futbol/ Soccer is loved around the world mostly for cultural reasons and kids can play easily young even if they’re poor.

American football is mostly cultural, tailgating and gives most people in the US something to talk about. It also helps that most games are the day before most people start the work week. It’s also fairly easy to play when young and poor.

Baseball has a higher barrier to entry (in comparison to soccer and football), but is still manageable for many. Same with basketball

But for the pure spectating experience, ice hockey can’t be beat. But marketing is horrible, the southern US has very few teams, and it takes a lot for kids to play between the equipment, need for frozen lakes or ice rinks which are expensive and it’s super hard to get time for a team to practice at a reasonable time for most people.