KHL Gagarin Cup finalist team Avangard Omsk's choice of a new coach was thrown into chaos Monday after his previous team said he remained under contract there.
Former Finland assistant coach Petri Matikainen signed a three-year deal with the Siberian team Thursday, but is still contracted to his previous club HIFK, the Finnish team's general manager Yucca Valtanen told R-Sport.
The incident is the second controversy over coaching at Avangard this month after Matikainen's predecessor Raimo Summanen resigned in mysterious circumstances three weeks after signing a contract extension.
Summanen, who is also Finnish, has made no public statement on his exit and team officials have said they do not know why he left.
Since then, Matikainen has begun working with Avangard's players at their training camp.
"Yes, we have a contract with Matikainen," said the Finnish side manager Yucca Valtanen.
"We understand that Avangard want to see Petri Matikainen as their head coach, but the negotiations still have not been successfully completed," he said, referring to talks between the clubs on the coach's transfer.
Summanen's departure was "completely unexpected”, Avangard general manager Vladimir Kapulovsky told R-Sport at the time.
Before signing the one-year extension last month, Summanen turned down repeated offers of another two-year deal, and had reportedly argued with the team management over player transfers.
Matikainen’s greatest success came in 2008 when he took Finnish league team Espoo Blues to defeat in the playoff finals.
The 45-year-old was named coach of the season afterwards.
Last season, he took HIFK to a third-place finish in the regular season, but disappointed with a quarterfinal exit in the playoffs.
Avangard was 3-1 up in the best-of-seven Gagarin Cup final series against Dynamo Moscow when defenseman Anton Belov tested positive for a banned stimulant and was suspended.
Avangard then suffered a dramatic collapse to lose the series 4-3.
