The International Ice Hockey Federation condemns the military aggression against Ukraine and indefinitely suspends the national teams of the Russian Federation and Belarus from participating in the matches, the press center of IIHF announces.
An extraordinary meeting of the IIHF Council took place on Monday, February 28. The meeting participants strongly condemned Russia’s military attack on Ukraine and called on Russia to “use diplomatic ways to resolve the conflict”.
As a result of the meeting, IIHF Council decided to suspend the participation of all the Russian and Belarus national clubs in each age category from all the tournaments and events IIHF. The suspension is indefinite.
The organization also revoked the right of the Russian Federation to host the Junior World Championship in 2023.
Under the current circumstances, this decision will affect the following events:
- IIHF Continental Cup 2022 (March 4-6, 2022) - Belarus club team HC "Homel" will not participate;
- Under-18 Ice Hockey World Championship 2022 (April 21-May 1, 2022) - Russian and Belarus U18 men’s teams will not participate;
- 2022 Ice Hockey World Championship (May 13-29, 2022) - Men’s national teams of Russia and Belarus will not participate;
- 2022 Women Ice Hockey World Championship (Under 18) - Russia's U18 women’s national team will not participate;
- IIHF Junior World Championship 2022 (dates are not subject) - Russia's U20 men’s national team will not participate;
- 2022 Women Ice Hockey World Championship (August 26-September 4, 2022) - Russia’s women's national team will not participate.
The Junior World Championship 2023 was supposed to happen from 26 December 2022 until 5 January 2023. IIHF will start discussions on finding a new host for the event.
Earlier, FIFA and UEFA suspended Russia indefinitely from all football tournaments.
On February 24, Russia attacked Ukraine, and Russia’s President Putin declared war on our country. The Russian army is shelling Ukrainian cities and villages. Belarus, where Alexander Lukashenko has seized power, supports Russia in its war against Ukraine.