IIHF President Luc Tardif confirms Russia and Belarus to remain banned from international competition

During his press conference ahead of the medal games at the 2022 World Juniors, International Ice Hockey Federation President Luc Tardif announced that the ban on Russia and Belarus will remain in effect for the next season.

Tardif added that the ban will be re-evaluated on a season-to-season basis, after the two nations were barred from international competition back in late-February following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Russia, who was originally set to host the 2023 World Junior Hockey Championship in December and 2023 World Hockey Championship next May, had their hosting duties revoked with the tournaments now being hosted by Canada and Finland/Latvia respectively.

The Russian and Belarussian national teams were replaced by Austria and France at the 2022 World Championship back in May and for the current World Junior Championship in Edmonton, Russia was replaced by Latvia, who finished second behind Belarus in Division 1A last winter.

Luc Tardif also mentioned that the IIHF has been working with other member nations to support Ukrainian hockey players in this time of crisis. Games in the Ukrainian Hockey League were suspended due to the invasion in February and as of today (August 20th), there isn't a whole lot of information on the upcoming season and what their plans are, which is understandable given the situation in the country.

Luc Tardif: Russia and Belarus remain barred from competition for next season. They will update decisions on season by season basis. IIHF has also been working to support hockey players in Ukraine along with member nations and other partners.— Chris Peters (@chrismpeters) August 20, 2022

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