IIHF set to punish Russian hockey for Putin's actions

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Josh tupper
February 27, 2022 (2:57 PM)

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The IIHF has been under great pressure to issue punishments to Team Russia, for the actions of Vladimir Putin. Other governing bodies like FIFA have already moved games out of Russia and have seen World Cup Qualifying has been disrupted by teams refusing to play the Russians.

Tomorrow the IIHF Governing body is scheduled to announce some significant punishments against the Russian Hockey Federation.

There is believed to be wide support among the federations to not invite Russia to upcoming IIHF tournaments, per sources, including the Men's and Women's World Championships, the men's U18's, the soon-to-be-rescheduled women's U18's and the soon-to-be-rescheduled 2022 World Junior Championship. There is also believed to be support to relocate the Russian-hosted 2023 world juniors in Novosibirsk and Omsk, and the 2023 Men's World Championship in St. Petersburg.

Switzerland, Latvia and several other federations have petitioned the IIHF to remove Russia and Belarus from the IIHF and to relocate the 2023 events. Wayne Gretzky also spoke out in support of not allowing Russia to play in world juniors, which is expected to take place in Alberta this summer. - The Athletic

TSN's Gord Miller confirmed this information with a Tweet of his own.

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