During an IIHF Council meeting, the International Ice Hockey Federation today confirmed that their ban on Russian and Belarusian teams, dating back to their invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, was extended through the 2024-25 hockey season.
Citing security reasons, the IIHF extended the ban to a fourth straight season, as the Russian-led invasion is reaching its two-year anniversary, with little signs of slowing down. The ban will continue to restrict Russia and Belarus’ national men’s, women’s and junior teams from participating in, or hosting, international tournaments through at least the 2025 IIHF World Championships, at which point a decision about the following season is due.
The decision for the following season will be major, as this will impact Russia’s participation in the 2026 Milan Olympics, which they are currently qualified for based on their IIHF World Ranking status. The Russians, whose Olympic status was already in question due to the doping scandal that plagued their Winter Olympic teams in 2018 and 2022, were removed from Olympic competition at the start of the 2022 Beijing Paralympics, and even the prospect of individual Russian athletes competing under a neutral flag has been met with protest and skepticism.
The decision today has already impacted Belarus’ potential participation in Milan, as the ban means they are removed from their Olympic qualification tournament set for 29 August to 01 September in Bratislava, Slovakia, where they were set to face the host nation, Kazakhstan and recently-promoted Ukraine, with the winner clinching a spot for the Games. While the decision was probably decided upon before Ukraine clinched their spot yesterday, the prospect of two warring nations competing on the ice in a NATO country would have been highly unlikely.
The ban also means that Russia and Belarus will be ineligible for both the 2024 and 2025 Men’s World Championships in Czechia and Denmark & Sweden, respectively, while the Russian women’s team (as Belarus has none) cannot play at this or next year’s Women’s Worlds in the United States or Czechia. The under-20 junior squads for both Russia and Belarus will miss the 2025 World Juniors in Ottawa, Canada, with the 2026 edition in Minnesota, United States serving as the first potential major tournament they can return to in the 2025-26 season.
International Hockey Lineal Championship 
There is at least one more action that needs to be taken. The IIHF world ranking rules need to change, at least for the men. As many countries now are capable of doing well in international play, spreading points between them, freezing Russia’s ranking points from before the war is not appropriate. Russia will very likely end up ranked #1, without having played in tournaments. (They just rose from #3 to #2, after the World Championship.) And they might hold that position for many years, if the war in Ukraine drags on. There are several options for fixing this issue. The simplest may be to freeze their rank from before the war (which was #3), without listing a point total for them.