IIHF should take away the championships from Russia today, exclude it together with Belarus and announce substitutes – ŠPORT.sk

Finnish portal iltalehti.fi He came up with information from a source in the IIHF, what decisions should be made today from 6:00 p.m. The IIHF Council should decide on the withdrawal of the 2023 Men’s World Championship and the 2023 Junior World Championship from Russia, which was to organize it.

In May, they should be replaced by Austria and France at the World Championships in Finland, both national teams dropped out of the highest division at the 2019 World Championships, and since then the 1st Division World Championships for the pandemic have not taken place.

The Finnish Hockey Federation announced this morning that it would not allow Russia or Belarus to play in the tournament on their territory. Austria should replace Russia and France Belarus.

The sanctions adopted should also affect the championship itself, which will be played in Helsinki and Tampere. The capital of Finland was to be played in the Hartwall Arena, which is also owned by Russian oligarchs Roman Rotenberg and Gennadi Timtshenko. Both are on the sanctions list against Russia. The matches should therefore be moved to an older hall in Helsinki with a capacity of less than 9,000 seats.