The 2026 IIHF Congress concluded today in Zürich, Switzerland, with a number of major announcements made, the main one being the surprising reversal on the status of Russia and Belarus’ team participation following the original extension of their competition ban, which has been in place since 2022.

As announced in January, the IIHF had extended the ban on Russian and Belarusian competition for the 2026-27 international hockey season, again citing safety and security concerns. However, the decision was then appealed by the Russian Ice Hockey Federation to the IIHF Disciplinary Board, who reversed their decision on 25 May, thus lifting the blanket ban on competition. The IIHF was quick to confirm that “this does not mean that Russia has automatically been reintegrated,” but rather Russian participation will be decided on a tournament by tournament basis.

As for Belarus, there had already been earlier discussion about allowing junior Belarusian teams back on to the international calendar; the IIHF Congress confirmed that Belarus will have teams reintegrated into the World Women’s Championship (Division IV), World Men’s Under-18 Championship (Top Division) and World Women’s Under-18 Champion (Division IIIB), with reintegration about the World Junior and World Championships presumably not to happen until the 2027-28 season.

This is a huge pivot from the IIHF, who now will surely face pressure to reintegrate these teams for their first international competition since the Beijing 2022 Olympics. However, as numerous other European federations, ranging from Central European nations to those in Scandinavia and the Baltics, have threatened to boycott any tournaments featuring Russia and/or Belarus, perhaps having Belarus play in these events will act as a litmus test for how all teams are reintegrated into the international calendar.

The other major announcements from the Congress were focused around hosting future World Championships, with the big news that Finland and Latvia will cohost the 2030 World Championships in Helsinki and Rīga, respectively, with the countries co-hosting together for the second time, after replacing the original 2023 host city, Saint Petersburg, Russia, which was stripped of hosting duties following their blanket IIHF ban. Switzerland was also announced as host of the 2028 Women’s World Championship, in cities to be announced, hosting for the second time after Zürich and Winterthur split duties in 2011.

The remainder of the 2027 IIHF calendar was finalized as well, with host cities named for the majority of the lower division tournaments. 2027 will see the introduction of lower divisions for both the men’s (Division IV will now be split into Groups A and B) and women’s (Division IV, which will feature Belarus as mentioned earlier), with debuting countries like India and Morocco joining the championship. Be sure to check Upcoming Tournaments for updates as they are announced.

Photo Credit: Hokejsa Zveza Slovenije – IIHF – HHOF – IOC