A question about the KHL

[These Are The Days]

This probably doesn't deserve its own thread but I wasn't sure where or how to ask it my question. But I'd really like to know: why are the names on the back of the player's jerseys written in the English alphabet instead of the traditional Russian Cyrillic? I watch KHL highlights and notice the occasional English cross over on advertisements in arenas and even strangely enough on Metallurg Magnitogorsk's logo. Now, I could understand doing it because audiences in other countries may speak English as a second language and would recognize player names in non-Cyrillic lettering but even then, that doesn't make sense to me.

Can anyone shed light on why a league primarily in Russia has for example, "Radulov" and "Kovalchuk" instead of "Радулов" and "Ковальчу́к"?

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[Exarz]

Most likely for marketing purposes and it basically gives it more legitimacy as an international league.

The Russian clubs used to have cyrillic letters on the back but they changed a couple of seasons ago. The junior teams and farm teams still use the cyrillic letters though.

 

[tigervixxxen]

I've always wondered why there are different English spellings for Russian names. For example Mikhail Sergachev also goes by Sergachyov in other places. Or I see named like Evgeni go to Yevgeni when they are playing in Russia same with Sergei and Sergey or Andrei and Andrey. I just want to make sure I spell their names right so I'm confused by which way is correct, or maybe both are.

 

[Killion]

Most likely for marketing purposes and it basically gives it more legitimacy as an international league.

Yes, its absolutely for marketing reasons, English more universal.

 

[Acallabeth]

Because the league has several countries participating (and watching) where people can't read the Cyrillic.

I've always wondered why there are different English spellings for Russian names. For example Mikhail Sergachev also goes by Sergachyov in other places. Or I see named like Evgeni go to Yevgeni when they are playing in Russia same with Sergei and Sergey or Andrei and Andrey. I just want to make sure I spell their names right so I'm confused by which way is correct, or maybe both are.

"Yo" in Dergachyov, Kovalyov, Syomin etc. is a recent trend for transliterating the letter "ё", which is a bit closer to correct, but still not exactly right (if placed after a consonant, it just softens it, there's no defined [j] sound, like ['sʲɵmʲin]).

Similarly, the starting Е in the name Евгений (Yevgeniy) should technically be pronounced like [je] (in fact, usually reducued to , so transliterated as "Ye", but is often just "E" for simplicity, like Yemelin turned into Emelin in the NHL.

There's a bardak (no order) with transliterating the finishing "й" (sound [j]) in names like Андрей, Алексей etc. (when it comes after a non-consonant), so it's both "i" and "y". "y" is closer to correct, but generally don't bother, no one in Russia cares whether It's Dmitry Megalinsky, Dmitriy Megalinskiy, Dmitry Megalinskiy, Dmitriy Megalinsky, Dmitri Megalinsky etc.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Thanks for the explanation!