CAS offers to give up: will the IIHF allow Russia to the World Championships
After the high-profile decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne demanding that the Russian national teams be allowed to participate in the upcoming international competitions, the leadership of world hockey and many national federations reacted negatively to this prospect. But at the same time, almost no one made specific promises to boycott the matches. According to experts, the Russians' return to the competition will be quietly slowed down, so it all depends on who and how will control the execution of the court decision.
Successful claim
On October 30, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (CAS) granted the appeal of the Russian Hockey Federation (RIHF) against the non-admission of its national teams to tournaments under the auspices of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Thus, the Russian side successfully appealed the ban on the participation of adult men's and women's national, youth and junior national teams before the World Cup.
The CAS ordered the IIHF to lift the ban on Russian teams. We are talking about all national teams, men's and women's, national, youth and junior. Moreover, the court clearly stated that the decision comes into force already this season and concerns the upcoming world Championships. Based on this, our team must participate in the World Youth Championship (for players under 20 years of age), which will be held from December 27, 2026 to January 5, 2027 in Canada.
Next up are the Women's Junior World Cup (for players under the age of 18) in Ostrava, Czech Republic (January 8-16), the men's Junior World Cup in Duluth, USA (April 21 — May 2, 2027), the men's Adult World Cup in Dusseldorf and Mannheim, Germany (May 14-30) and the women's Adult World Cup in Quebec, Canada (November).
The IIHF immediately expressed disappointment and disagreement with the CAS decision. The federation's release says that "the decisions taken earlier were necessary to ensure the safety of all participants, as well as to preserve the integrity of the competition."
At the same time, the federation stressed that it recognizes the authority of the CAS and will act in accordance with its decision. The court in Lausanne, according to sports law, is the final instance and it is impossible to appeal it.
However, the question remains how the IIHF and the competition organizers will implement this decision. The International Federation complained about the serious practical consequences of organizing competitions, the preparation for which is already at an advanced stage.
"Changes in the membership require extensive coordination with the relevant national federations, organizing committees, and host parties,— the IIHF said in a statement. — This includes reviewing competition formats, schedules, travel and accommodation arrangements, as well as security measures. The CAS decision does not take into account practical aspects that cannot be implemented immediately."
The IIHF promised that information on the implementation of the decision and the practical aspects of the affected competitions will be provided later, and the priorities in this work "will remain ensuring the safety of all participants and preserving the integrity of each of the championships."
An IIHF board meeting is due to take place this week, at which the leaders will discuss the procedure for Russia's admission. Interestingly, on the very first day after the CAS decision, it became clear that a change in the composition of the participants of the adult World Championship in Germany should lead to the exclusion of Ukraine from the tournament.
In recent decades, the competition format has involved 16 teams, which are divided into two groups of eight teams each. This tournament is called the elite division. According to its results, the teams that took the last places in their groups are sent to the first division. In their place, the teams that have won the first division competitions in their groups rise.
In the spring of 2026, Ukraine became one of these teams. She made it to the elite division of the World Championship for the first time in 20 years. Interestingly, the IIHF rating system is designed in such a way that Russia cannot be forced to start its return from the lower divisions.
The fact is that she is still the first in the IIHF ranking, although she has been banned since 2022. The Federation has partially frozen our team's performance, so no one has been able to beat it in four years. Given that the CAS has not yet issued a verdict on the suspension of the Belarusian national team, it is possible that in the near future the leadership of world hockey will have a headache about how to bring back the two teams.
In May, the IIHF allowed the adult and junior women's national teams of Belarus, as well as the men's junior teams, to participate in its competitions. As for the adult Ukrainian national team, Anders Larrson, Chairman of the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation and a member of the IIHF Board, confirmed that Russia could replace the yellow-block team.
"Earlier, at the level of the IIHF congress, we fixed a provision according to which, if Russia returns, which is what is happening now, it will return to the same level where it was before," Larsson told the Swedish edition of Aftonbladet. — Now we have to work out the logistical aspects, given that the World Cup involves a fixed number of teams, a certain number of matches and already existing TV rights agreements. Ukraine became the last team to qualify. We should not anticipate the decisions that will be made next week, but it is clear that issues of this kind require consideration in the near future.
The reaction of the federations
The majority of European national hockey federations condemned the CAS decision. But no one has directly announced a boycott of matches with the Russian national team. The Finnish federation limited itself to allowing its hockey players to refuse to go to the national team if the Russians were allowed to participate in the tournament. Viesturs Koziols, vice president of the Latvian Hockey Federation and a member of the IIHF board, said that their national team is prohibited from playing against Russia by the laws of the country.
At the same time, in an interview with Sport-Express, expressing disagreement with the CAS decision, he categorically denies the political aspect of rejecting Russia's participation and stresses security, logistics and commerce issues.
"There are no political issues at all," SA quotes Koziols as saying. — As a member of the IIHF Board, I would like to understand how this decision will affect the IIHF economy, logistics, and ticket sales in Germany, which are already underway. What will happen to tickets that have already been sold? What will happen to the sponsors? I do not know if they will agree to remain sponsors or not. And I want to understand. All divisions are affected, and the season has already started. There is no politics in this. Simple, pragmatic questions.
Russia's admission of the ice hockey federations of Sweden, Germany and the Czech Republic was condemned. The chairman of the Board of the German Ice Hockey Federation, Frank Lutz, did not rule out the possibility of his country's refusal to host the adult World Championship in May.
"I don't want to immediately draw the worst—case scenario, but, of course, we have to consider the option of not hosting the World Cup," Lutz said in an interview with Magenta TV. — Despite the fact that I am an optimist, I cannot say with absolute certainty that the tournament will actually take place in May in Dusseldorf and Mannheim.
He cited the huge financial investments needed to ensure the safety of the tournament as the main reason. He also did not rule out the option of not issuing visas to Russian athletes.
Meanwhile, Russian athletes already have a practice of circumventing visa problems. In particular, in August, our kayaking and canoeing team managed to participate in the World Championships in Poznan, entering Poland on Schengen visas obtained in Portugal. For this purpose, the athletes and their delegation embarked on an extremely difficult logistical route, but managed to become the first Russians since 2022 to take part in a competition on the territory of one of the most hostile countries to us.
The situation is more complicated with Canada, where the next tournament with the expected participation of Russia will be held. The local Sports ministry has already stated that the authorities do not plan to issue visas to the players, coaches and members of the delegation of the youth national team of our country. At the same time, the Prime Minister of the Canadian province of Alberta, Danielle Smith, said that the authorities would not prevent the participation of Russians in the MFM.
The Canadian Hockey Federation spoke neutrally about Russia's admission, saying it was waiting for the reasoning part of the CAS decision. The USA Hockey Federation has not commented on the situation. The Slovak Ice Hockey Federation spoke positively on this topic, as did the country's Prime Minister, Robert Fico.
Despite the negative attitude of the Czech hockey authorities towards Russia's admission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic did not rule out that the Russian women's youth national team would receive visas to enter Ostrava for the January World Cup.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
