Kenya Ice Hockey has incredible reaction after being granted membership into the IIHF
Kenya Ice Hockey had an incredible reaction after being granted membership into the International Ice Hockey Federation.
The International Ice Hockey Federation Congress met in Greece on Thursday to discuss a number of topics for the 2024-25 season and among those was a vote for new membership.
Kenya and Bahrain were the two nations being voted on by the IIHF. Both nations were granted associate membership into the International Ice Hockey Federation, with a vote of 105 to zero.
While the votes were being tallied, Kenya Ice Hockey set up a camera to catch their reaction and it was quite wholesome to say the least for a nation that has only made their debut back in 2019 and only had their rink built less than 20 years ago. They've been working hard towards this well before 2019 and it's great to see it paying off with membership into the IIHF.
It's great to see the growth and globalization of hockey. The International Ice Hockey Federation is now up to 84 total members with the additions of Kenya and Bahrain, with five of those being in Africa - Algeria, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia. Meanwhile, Bahrain becomes just the ninth country in the Middle East to join the IIHF - Bahrain, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates.
Because Kenya and Bahrain don't have an Olympic-sized ice rink in their respective countries, both nations are not allowed to participate at IIHF World Championships, but could participate at the IIHF Development Cup starting in 2025.
While we still may be a while from this happening, in the next few decades, it would be great to see the IIHF at a point where these associate member nations have developed immensely and an actual World Cup could be staged like FIFA has done for nearly 100 years.
| POLL | ||
Should the IIHF hold a 32-team World Cup similar to what FIFA did between 1998 and 2022? | ||
| Yes | 30 | 51.7 % |
| Not right now, maybe in 20-25 years | 28 | 48.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
