Last month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the International Ice Hockey Federation had to reinstate Russian teams in international hockey. The federation lost the case and said it disagreed with the outcome. On Sunday, IIHF confirmed that Russia will not be at the 2027 World Junior Championship anyway.
The reason it gave has nothing to do with sport.
What the IIHF actually said
The federation’s statement is unusually direct about where the decision came from.
Russia is out, it said, “due to the position and restrictions formally communicated by the Canadian Government”, which means the Russian under-20 team is unable to take part. On keeping the tournament where it is: “After carefully assessing the feasibility of alternative arrangements, the IIHF Council has determined that Canada will remain as host.”
That second sentence matters. The federation looked at moving the tournament out of Canada to comply with the ruling it had just lost, and decided against it.
Canada got there first
Four days before the IIHF confirmed anything, the Canadian government had already closed the door.
It told Hockey Canada it would not issue visas for Russians to play in the tournament. Russians who already hold valid Canadian visas to play for teams in this country are ineligible too, neutral flag or not.
Adam Van Koeverden, Canada’s Secretary of State for Sport, said the immigration minister would “take measures to individually assess and prevent Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from entering Canada” to compete, regardless of any paperwork they already hold. He also drew the line in one sentence: “Canada’s position is unequivocal: as long as Russia continues its war of aggression against Ukraine, there can be no return to business as usual.”
Norway’s week
Somebody should check on Norway.
Norway had qualified for Edmonton. Then, on 8 November, its own federation said the IIHF had informed it that Russia would be added at Norway’s expense — the schedule had gone out to the federations with Russia in it and Norway out. A week later, the IIHF said Russia is not coming.
The federation has not said what happens to the tenth place now. The tournament opens on 26 December in Edmonton and Red Deer with ten teams, and Norway’s name was on the list before any of this started.
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