In a stunning reversal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the International Ice Hockey Federation today was ordered to immediately reinstate all Russian hockey teams to IIHF competition despite their ongoing invasion of Ukraine, throwing a major wrench into upcoming tournaments throughout the 2026-27 season.
After ruling this past July that some, but not all, teams from Russia and Belarus could be reinstated on a case-by-case basis for this current season, Russia appealed the decision to the CAS, arguing that the IIHF’s reasoning of security concerns was invalid and should not be upheld. It was this morning then that the CAS deemed that Russia was eligible for all IIHF tournaments, with immediate effect, although this would not start until December’s World Junior Championship, with the Women’s World Championship next week originally being scheduled for April before being postponed due to the Olympics. Whether a similar decision for Belarus, who was deemed eligible for more tournaments already this year, is pending.
How this will pan out for the remaining tournaments, especially given the World Juniors set to take start in just over two months, remains to be seen. The IIHF, and multiple member federations, have expressed their disagreement and disappointment with the decision, but that they will respect the ruling; however, how this applies in principle, especially when it comes to individual players, or individual federations hosting tournaments, is still yet to be determined.
The ruling opens up a myriad of complex issues for the IIHF to resolve in short order, mainly being how the re-introduction and relegation process for these tournaments would happen, given that teams were promoted in place of Russia’s ban years ago, so whether tournaments this year would have larger pools and longer schedules, or if newly promoted teams were negated from promotion would happen at Russia’s expense. This would be particularly stinging for Ukraine, who was promoted to the Men’s World Championship for the first time in two decades earlier this year.
There is also the issue of how individual governments will handle the players, as upcoming tournaments set to be hosted in Canada (World Juniors) or Germany (Men’s Worlds), for example, have both issued varying degrees of limitations on approving Russian travel visas into their respective countries. Whether they would override any CAS/IIHF decision, or if these federations would boycott participating, or potentially even hosting, in response, may render any visa issues moot even for players that can enter these countries.
The IIHF, who can still appeal the CAS decision to the Swiss Supreme Court, is set to deliberate on 02 November to prepare a response and action plan going forward, so we shall see how these tournaments, set to begin before the calendar year is out, will be impacted by the potential return of the Russian national teams.
Photo Credit: Business of Sports Institute Africa – IIHF – HHOF – IOC
