The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) will allow the Russian Ice Hockey Federation to resume participation in its national team competitions after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in favor of the national body.
Despite the IIHF’s “disappointment” at the ruling, it says it will comply, meaning Russia will now be able to participate in the IIHF’s top-tier events across 2027, including its men’s, women’s, and junior category world championships, as well as the men’s and women’s world championships in the under-18 category.
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The IIHF says that the removal of Russian teams from international competition was necessary to “protect the safety and security of all participants and safeguard the integrity of its competitions.”
Additionally, the body also says that the timing of this ruling immediately impacts national federations and planning for upcoming tournaments.
This move has already caused concern in the international ice hockey community. The national federations of Austria, Czechia, Finland, and Germany have each already published statements decrying the decision and suggested they will mount opposition to the CAS ruling.
Outside of IIHF competition, this may have further implications across the world of ice hockey, including the elite NHL, which may now have to include Russia in its 2028 World Cup of Hockey competition, which it will organize and stage in Canada and Czechia.
The next affected event, the 2027 IIHF World Junior Championship, will be staged from December 26, 2026 through January 5, 2027 in Edmonton and Red Deer, Canada.
That will be followed by the 2027 Under-18 Women’s World Championship from January 8 to 16 in Ostrava, Czechia, and the 2027 Under-18 Men’s World Championship from April 21 through May 2 in Duluth, United States.
The 2027 IIHF Men’s World Championship will then be staged in Dusseldorf and Mannheim, Germany, from May 14 to 30.
Although not yet set to a specific date, next year's IIHF Women’s World Championship will be held in Quebec City, Canada, in November, capping off the annual slate of elite IIHF events.
Russia has been banned from competing in many sports since the country invaded Ukraine in 2022. But the country appears to be slowly returning to the global sports scene, through both participation and hosting.
Earlier this week, Weightlifting became the first Olympic sport to bring global championships back to Russia after the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) awarded its 2030 Weightlifting Championships to Moscow.
This comes just four months after the IWF made Russian athletes eligible again to compete in its events. For the last four-and-a-half years, no world championships in any Olympic sport have taken place in Russia.
The move from the IWF follows on from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) provisionally lifting its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee in July. Russian athletes have been banned from competing at the Olympics under their own flag since 2016, because of state-sponsored doping offences before the invasion of Ukraine.
The ROC was invited back in from the cold after accepting that it no longer controlled sporting bodies in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
However, the IOC’s decision does come with some caveats. All Russian athletes returning to international competition must meet relevant anti-doping requirements, while the IOC will not organise events in Russia or invite Russian government or state officials to its events.
The Olympic body will also decide on the display of the Russian flag, anthem, colours, or any identifications for the Olympic Games “at the appropriate time.”
After the IOC's decision, an appeal was immediately filed by Ukraine.
Only 27 athletes from Russia competed across the 2024 Olympics in Paris and the 2026 Winter Games in Milano Cortina – as neutrals – after undergoing a vetting process to ensure they did not publicly support the war in Ukraine.
This has now been scrapped, with Russian athletes only having to abide by the values of the Olympic charter.
The IOC has, however, left it up to individual sports federations to decide on whether Russia should be allowed to host major events again, with the IWF being the first to stick its head above the parapet on the issue.
