Report - Belarus and Russia may return to IIHF competitions later this year
It's been just over a year since the International Ice Hockey Federation banned Belarus and Russia due to the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. But according to Russian media outlet MatchTV, the sport's governing body may be allowing the two nations to return to play later this year.
Note: the following quote is translated from Russian by DeepL.
The source also told MatchTV that some surprising names are in favour of having Belarus and Russia return to IIHF competitions, those nations being Canada and the United States.
Part of the reason why the International Ice Hockey Federation is willing to allow the return of the two nations, more so Russia in this case, is due to financial reasons. MatchTV's source says that the IIHF is losing money by not having Russia playing in tournaments such as the World Juniors and World Championship.
The IIHF's council is set to meet in May to make a decision the potential return of Belarus and Russia. If allowed to return, it will be interesting to see how the IIHF restructures the tournaments to allocate the two nations, before returning to a normal pre-2020 tournament structure, likely in 2024.
Source: MatchTV.ru
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