Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has called the country's national hockey team spineless after failing to qualify for the playoffs at the world championships.
Lukashenko, an authoritarian leader who has held power since 1994, has told government officials the Belarusian players "lack ambition, have no commitment and are absolutely spineless".
In comments reported on Thursday on the presidential website, Lukashenko said "the coaching work is disgusting".
Belarus won two of seven games at this month's world championships, finishing second last in their group but avoiding relegation.
Lukashenko has played hockey with Russian president Vladimir Putin and says the sport is like an "ideology" for the roughly 9.5 million inhabitants of his ex-Soviet nation.
