FRANKFURT, Oct 30 (Reuters) – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled on Friday that Russian teams can compete in next year’s men’s and women’s world championships, overturning International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) decisions to exclude them from its competitions.
CAS upheld appeals lodged by the Russian Ice Hockey Federation against the IIHF barring its teams from participating in events during the 2026-27 season.
The Lausanne-based court said the IIHF had not presented sufficient evidence to justify its assessment that security concerns required Russia’s continued exclusion from its competitions.
The first tournament affected by the ruling is the men’s world junior championship in Canada starting on December 26.
Other events covered include next year’s women’s world championship in Canada and the men’s world championship in Germany.
CAS said the ruling was limited to the legality of the exclusion decisions and did not address issues such as whether Russian teams should compete under a neutral flag and without national symbols, as athletes from the country have done in other sports.
The IIHF said it was disappointed by the outcome.
“The IIHF disagrees with this aspect of the ruling and maintains that its decisions were necessary to protect the safety and security of all participants and safeguard the integrity of its competitions,” the federation said.
“While the IIHF respects the authority of CAS and will act in accordance with its ruling, the outcome does not remove the concerns that informed its assessments.”
The IIHF has excluded Russia from most international ice hockey competitions since 2022 following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has won five IIHF world titles as an independent nation.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Karan Prashant Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Friederike Heine and Ed Osmond)
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