The board of the International Ice Hockey Federation, IIHF, which includes, among others, the chairman of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association, Anders Larsson, made the decision on Tuesday.
"The IIHF board does not believe it is safe to reintegrate Russian and Belarusian national teams and club teams for the 2025-26 season," writes IIHF in its decision.
"Not strong enough"
The Russian Ice Hockey Federation is furious about the decision:
"One of IIHF's arguments for not allowing our team was the participants' safety. In our opinion, this argument is not strong enough. There are over 50 Russians playing in the NHL. Russian swimmers, chess players, and representatives of other sports participate in international competitions – and no incidents occur," says Pavel Bure, the Russian Ice Hockey Federation's representative for international issues, to the Russian Federation's website.
The decision means in practice that Russia will not be able to participate in ice hockey at the Olympic Games in Milan in February 2026.
It is indeed the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, that makes the formal decision, but they usually follow the individual sports federations' decisions.
In the Olympic Games in Paris last summer, individual athletes from Russia and Belarus were allowed to participate under a neutral flag, but no teams were allowed.
Going to court
The Russian Ice Hockey Federation will appeal IIHF's decision.
"We will appeal this decision in court," writes the Russian Ice Hockey Federation.
Anders Larsson is pleased that Sweden's line continues to apply:
"We within Swedish ice hockey stand behind this decision, which is entirely necessary in the current situation," he says according to a press release.
Russia, together with Belarus, has been banned from international ice hockey since the aggressive war against Ukraine began after the Olympic Games in Beijing in February 2022.
