Hockey World Championship 2025: Russia at the head of the ranking? IIHF President did not want to respond

Stockholm. If the day after the end MS in hockey 2025 Look at the ladder IIHFCanada comes first, followed by Finland. However, this is not the second in the order, but it is in the third position.

There is no second place in the IIHF ranking. Only at the bottom of the ranking that closes Mongolia and Indonesia is an explanation. There are two countries under the auspices of « do not participate in the IIHF World Cup »: 2. Russia and 16. Belarus.

Both countries were excluded from international hockey events after Russia (even with the support of Belarus, which provided its territory) in February 2022 militarily attacked Ukraine.

Current Ranking Shown on IIHF website not It is not updated with the results of the recently completed championship in Sweden and Denmark.

After that, according to the rules, Russia should come first. And this is, given the fact that the World Championship has not been presented four times in a row, a relatively bizarre situation.

The media work with the version that the Russians will be added on the basis of their « deployment » according to the valid location.

If they are second in the I It is this part of the Russians after last year’s championship.

The order in the IIHF ranking is calculated according to the results achieved at the last four championships and one Olympic Games. The oldest result is gradually taking weight.

And this is where the bizarre situation occurs. Since Canada, as the leader of the ranking, dropped out at the last World Championship in the quarterfinal (1: 2 against Denmark), it will not defend the first place with certainty. However, if Russia gets seconds for second place, it will reach the top ranking of the International Hockey Federation.

IIHF boss did not want to talk

Once this topic got to a treasure during Sunday’s press conference in Stockholm, IIHF President Luc Tardif According to foreign media He said to the microphone that « he was pushing the word Anders Larsson ».

The Swedish official is a member of the IIHF Council and until 2021 he worked in the Committee for Competition and Coordination.

« Our decision was that the Russians and Belarusians could not play and will get points on the position on which they are ‘frozen’. You can look at our site, they are not even in the ladder, » Larsson said.

He repeated the solution that the IIHF brought after the beginning of the war in Ukraine. In part, he is right, Russia and Belarus are earmarked from the ranking and their positions are listed lower on the page.

If the same mechanism of the awarding points continues in the future, Russia will not be able to depose from the first place until it interferes with the competitions again. Outburdom hockey players will always get the maximum possible number of points as if they became the world champions.

« They earn points for such a placement on which they are frozen, » Larsson added, not refuted that Russia will add points for the first place.

Later to the situation for The Czech media expressed Also IIHF Vice President and IIHF Council member Petr Bříza.

« I know this is an absurd situation. The team that does not play is collecting points. When Congress decided in September three years ago, no one at that time did not think that the whole situation could take so long, » he admitted.

“When we later decided what to go on, if these countries were to return eventually, we created a mechanism not to withdraw what we had already dismissed.

The second thing was the freezing of average points. At that time, no one expected where it would go. In September, the Congress will address whether this will be the status quo for the next years, or for the next period we will receive another way of counting points, « Bříza explained.

IIHF Tardif boss, according to available information to the situation did not comment. On another question, he only replied that he will decide on another Russian and Belarusian participation in the World Championship in February next year.

Russians at the Winter Olympics? Is not yet decided

Among other things, another burning question was addressed at a press conference – Russia’s participation in the Winter Olympics 2026 in Milan.

Latvian portal Sportcentrs He informed on Friday that the Russians would not participate in the Olympics in Italy, referring to reports directly from the IIHF.

But Tardif did not directly confirm this information on Sunday.

“The organizer is the International Olympic Committee, we only deal with the competition itself. We are pushing the IOC to make a decision and it doesn’t matter what.

The organizers need to know the opinion to solve a specific program. Recently, however, they told us in the IOC to send the organizers a program without Russia. The official announcement should yet come, « the IIHF chief explained.

Biríza also provided a similar statement: « We do not have the right to decide on the tournament, but we want to be clear as soon as possible. We just informed the membership that we have already sent the final form of a breakdown without the Russians. »

If the information is confirmed and Russia will not be presented at the Winter Olympics, the first substitute will be France, which has been the best team from the second cities in the final phase of the Olympic qualification. The winners of the three qualifying groups were Slovakia, Latvia and Denmark.

The men’s hockey tournament will be played at the 2026 Winter Olympics from 11 to 22 February in Milan. For the time being, the organizers are also working with versions of groups where Russia does not appear.

Slovakia will perform in Group B in the competition of Finland, Sweden and Italy. Group A consists of Canada, Switzerland, Czech Republic and France. The US, Germany, Latvia and Denmark will be played in Group C.