{"id":957150,"date":"2026-11-03T20:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T20:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/957150\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T20:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T20:18:11","slug":"finland-sweden-among-nations-refusing-to-play-against-russia-in-international-hockey-tournaments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/957150\/","title":{"rendered":"Finland, Sweden among nations refusing to play against Russia in international hockey tournaments"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a statement posted on the organization\u2019s official website, <\/a>the Finnish Ice Hockey Association said they have been in contact with other federations to prevent Russia from competing in international tournaments. <\/p>\n

As part of the statement, the team announced they will not play Russia in any international games for the time being.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Czechia and Latvia joined in saying they will not participate in any national teams games<\/p>\n

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Friday that the International Ice Hockey Federation was to allow Russia to participate in IIHF World Championship tournaments, starting with the 2027 World Junior Championship in Edmonton and Red Deer. Since then, various top-level countries have shared their disappointment in the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently gathering as many countries as possible to form a common front to tell the IIHF that none of us will play against Russia in this situation,\u201d Finnish chairman Heikki Hietanen said in a translated statement. \u201cThis weighs significantly more heavily in the balance than the fact that we only announce the matter on our own behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the statement, the Finnish Ice Hockey Association board said they plan to keep \u201call possible means at its disposal to resolve the matter.\u201d The IIHF board of directors met on Monday as part of a two-day meeting to discuss the issue. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the IIHF\u2019s responsibility to inform about the meeting once a decision has been made. I have naturally made Finland\u2019s position on the matter clear and we will continue this work tomorrow,\u201d Hietanen said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Swedish position is crystal clear: Sweden will not play ice hockey matches against Russia given the current situation,\u201d the Swedish association said in a translated statement.\u201d This is not a boycott of the entire tournament; the refusal applies solely to matches against Russia.\u201d <\/p>\n

Russia has been banned from IIHF competition since the nation invaded Ukraine shortly after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, which saw Russian athletes play under the \u2018Russian Olympic Committee\u2019 banner. The country was banned along with Belarus, which supported Russia during the war. <\/p>\n

However, in the last few months, the International Olympic Committee lifted its suspension<\/a> of the ROC, while the IIHF has reinstated Belarus<\/a> for the U-18 Men\u2019s Worlds, the Division IV Women\u2019s Worlds and the U-18 Division III Women\u2019s Worlds. Notably, Russia and Belarus are able to participate in non-IIHF events, and frequently play in smaller national team events against each other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a statement posted on the organization\u2019s official website, the Finnish Ice Hockey Association said they have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":957151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-957150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/957151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}