The International Ice Hockey Federation, IIHF, has a board meeting on Monday and Tuesday next week.
A decision may come regarding the question of next season, 2025-26, but it may also be delayed.
Anders Larsson, who is a member of the IIHF board, explains:
We have some meetings planned for the spring and the interest from the outside is very great, and we have agreed not to reveal the agenda until the decisions are made.
We want to be as transparent as possible, but at the same time, it can put pressure on a question in a way that is not healthy, says Larsson, who is also vice chairman of the Swedish Olympic Committee, SOK.
Last year, the IIHF made the decision about next season in February, the year before in March.
Banned for four years
Russia and Belarus have been banned from international ice hockey since the war of aggression against Ukraine began shortly after the OS in Beijing in February 2022, and the nations will miss their fourth consecutive World Championship tournament this year.
Belarus is already out of the OS ice hockey in Milan next year, as the qualification for the men's tournament has been decided.
Russia, on the other hand, is directly qualified.
More and more people want to see Russia back in the sports community. Two of those who are candidates to succeed Thomas Bach as chairman of the IOC (International Olympic Committee), Swedish-Briton Johan Eliasch (skiing) and Frenchman David Lappartient (cycling), have openly declared that they want Russia back.
Athletes are not responsible for where they were born and they should not be caught in the middle, said Eliasch recently.
"The trend is clear"
In the OS in Paris, some sports allowed Russian and Belarusian participation individually under a neutral flag.
Since then, swimming has also allowed the countries to participate in teams under a neutral flag, at the short-course World Championship in Budapest in December.
The trend is quite clear when you look at different sports. I can only speak for ice hockey and the Swedish ice hockey position is unchanged, and it's important that we are clear with our voice, says Anders Larsson, who notes that a Swedish boycott is not an option if Russia is allowed back in.
Formally, it is the IOC that makes the final decision, but they usually follow the line of the different sports federations.
