Sweden, Norway among nations refusing to play Russian hockey teams after CAS decision

Opposition to Russia’s return to international hockey is growing after the Danish, Latvian, Norwegian and Swedish hockey federations announced on Tuesday that they will refuse to play Russian teams.

This follows Monday’s news that the Finnish Ice Hockey Association is trying to build a coalition to block Russia’s reintegration into the sport after last week’s Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling that Russia must be allowed to compete in International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) events again.

Like most other Olympic federations, the IIHF banned Russia when it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and has extended that ban on an annual basis ever since.

But on Friday, following several appeals by the Russian hockey federation, sport’s highest court ruled that the IIHF’s justifications for maintaining the ban — safety and security concerns — “were not supported by sufficient evidence.”

CAS, however, did not offer any guidance on how the IIHF should reintegrate Russia and the size of that challenge is now becoming clear.

In a statement published on its website and social media channels, the Norwegian federation said on Tuesday morning: “Norway will — based on the current situation and information available to us today — not play against Russia at the World Championship in Germany in May 2027. The remaining games in the group will be played as scheduled.

“Our position that Russia should be excluded from all international championships as long as the war in Ukraine continues and remains unchanged.

“At this time, this decision is based on our responsibility to protect the safety and well-being of our players, team staff and their families. We believe playing against Russia under the current circumstances could expose our players and team staff to significant security risks.”

An hour later, the Danish Ice Hockey Union published a much shorter statement on Instagram saying that it “will not participate in scheduled games against Russia in IIHF competition”. Like Norway, Denmark will play all other games.

Similar statements then arrived from the Latvian and Swedish hockey federations.

These decisions have already been communicated to the IIHF Council, the federation’s executive body, which is holding a two-day meeting to work out how it can comply with the CAS ruling when so many of its members do not want to host Russian teams or play against them.

The Finnish city of Turku has already said it will withdraw as co-host of the 2028 world junior tournament if Russia competes and the war in Ukraine has not ceased. Swedish furniture company AJ Producter has also said it is pulling its sponsorship of the men’s championship after a 37-year association with the event. There are also growing calls in Germany to withdraw as hosts of the competition, for which Ukraine has qualified.

But it is Canada that will have to deal with this headache first, as it is hosting the world junior tournament in Alberta, starting on December 26.

Canadian politicians and Hockey Canada have joined the IIHF in expressing their “disappointment” with the CAS ruling. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand told CBC on Friday that she was “not comfortable” with the idea of hosting a Russian team next month, while Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden said, via CBC, that the government will “maintain restrictions on the participation of Russian athletes” in state-funded events in Canada.

This means the IIHF is looking at a situation where the current hosts of its competitions will either pull out or refuse to give Russians visas to attend them, and many of the competitors at these tournaments will simply refuse to play Russia.

That will leave Russia’s hockey teams in the same position as the country’s football teams, as neither FIFA nor UEFA has actually banned Russia, it is just that most European nations will not play them so they cannot qualify for a European tournament or World Cup.

However, Russia was represented at last month’s FIFA U15 World Cup & Festival, and has also sent a 13-strong team to this month’s Youth Olympic Games in Senegal.

The IIHF has been contacted for comment.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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