The International Ice Hockey Federation confirms in a statement that Russia will not have a team at the world junior hockey championship next month in Alberta, citing government restrictions in Canada.
The IIHF says Russia will not be able to play at the tournament starting Dec. 26 in Edmonton and Red Deer, despite a mandate for the country’s reinstatement from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, following restrictions put in place by the federal government.
The organization says Canada will remain as host despite going against the CAS’s ruling.
Russia and Belarus have been banned from competing in international hockey tournaments since 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The CAS mandated Russia’s immediate reinstatement in an Oct. 30 ruling. The ruling would be in effect for the world junior championship and would affect four other tournaments, including the women’s world championship set for November 2027 in Quebec City.
The federal government pushed back quickly, with Prime Minister Mark Carney saying Nov. 3 at a meeting of Commonwealth countries in Antigua that Russians and Belarusians would be barred from competing in Alberta regardless of the CAS’s decision.
“While Russia and Belorussia (sic) are supporting this illegal, unjustified, horrific war in Ukraine, as long as that’s going on, there will be none of those athletes competing for their countries in Canada,” Carney said.
“So if you’re asking specifically about the world juniors, the Russians will not be there.”
The CAS’s decision was met with immediate pushback. Finland’s hockey federation said Nov. 2 that its national teams would not play Russia in international tournaments as long as the war in Ukraine continued. Sweden, Czechia and Latvia were among the other countries to follow Finland’s lead over the next few days.
The ice hockey federation of Sweden, the defending world junior champion, said: “The Swedish line was and is crystal clear — Sweden will not play ice hockey matches against Russia in the situation we are in right now.”
The court later defended its decision, saying the IIHF failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify continuing its ban on Russian teams, noting the ruling was based strictly on legal arguments and evidence presented.
But Ottawa maintained its stance, clarifying later that even Russian players with valid visas to compete in Canada would be barred from the world juniors.
The impasse left the tournament in limbo, with Norway’s federation saying it would be bumped from the competition in favour of a Russian team, a decision that was never confirmed publicly by the IIHF.
Meanwhile, hockey officials in Russia vowed to respond. Russian ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov criticized Ottawa’s decision, accusing the government of bringing politics into sports.
Russian hockey federation president Vladislav Tretiak threatened to seek compensation from Canada and push for relocation or cancellation of the Alberta world juniors if Russia was barred from competing.
He also asked the IIHF ethics council to investigate and punish national federations organizing boycotts of games against Russia.
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