A court opened the door to Russia\u2019s hockey return \u2013 politicians want it slammed shut, and some fans have had enough<\/p>\n
When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decided to refuse visas to Russians to play in next month\u2019s World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, he became the first elected leader to openly ignore a court ruling and international sports federation decision. In doing so, he unleashed dangerous and virulent anti-Russian forces in his own country, setting back sports diplomacy over 50 years.
\nThe week before, on October 30, the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) voted to allow Russian and Belarusian teams back into international play. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) accepted the decision and a plethora of national federations in Europe reacted predictably.
\nEight countries, including Latvia and France, stated that they would boycott any games with Russia. Germany, the host of the 2027 IIHF World Championships, objected but accepted Russia\u2019s return, with only Slovakia welcoming it. Sponsors of the event in Germany have either pulled out or threatened to do so.
\nWhat seems to be missing in this entire \u2018discussion\u2019 is what hockey fans think. Not the \u2018nafoids\u2019 and bots online who rant and rage against all things Russian. Not the opinion of the handful of Canadian-Ukrainians who protested in Ottawa at the visit of Russian star Alexander Ovechkin\u2019s Washington Capitals. And certainly not grandstanding by politicians and sports administrators beholden to them. The voices of actual hockey fans are being studiously ignored by the media \u2013 so too the inherent danger posed by Russian or Belarusian teams competing in international competitions.<\/p>\n
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Canada ignores court ruling to bar Russian hockey team<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s purely hate of Russians\u2019
\nIn October, I had a business trip with Capital Sports to EU countries. I covered a number of major sporting events, interviewed athletes and administrators, with hockey taking center stage in Germany, Italy, and Lithuania.
\n\u201cI used to love watching KHL (the Russia-based Continental Hockey League) games, they [are not] as brutal as in Canada, but the skill is amazing,\u201d Nils, an Iserlohn Roosters\u2019 hockey fan, told me in Cologne. \u201cYou see the difference with no Russian team playing [in World or Olympic competition], it\u2019s so hard on those guys because the career is short.\u201d
\nNils and his friend Patrick were in the city for their team\u2019s game with the Cologne Sharks. I interviewed dozens of people attending the November 1 game, less than two days after the CAS ruling. The German Ice Hockey Federation had already voiced opposition, with social media abuzz with rumors of boycotts and worse. Patrick and I found a common thread.
\n\u201cWhen they [speak] about security, this is correct. Because we see now, they [pro-Ukrainians] can make a lot of trouble and not only online.\u201d
\n\u2018Security\u2019 and \u2018safety\u2019 were words contained in the statements of most national federations, for good reason. We have seen what Kiev can do in other sovereign states when they want to make a point. From attempting to murder an exiled Ukrainian oligarch in Monaco to the case underway in Germany against a Ukrainian military officer for the Nord Stream terrorist attack, there is a basis for fear.<\/p>\n
Cologne Sharks v Iserlohn Roosters, German Hockey League, Cologne, Germany, November 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Courtesy Capital Sports <\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys [politicians and sport administrators] are idiots. It\u2019s purely hate of Russians,\u201d Mikaela, from Dusseldorf and lifelong hockey fan, said. \u201cWe had enough war now and we have to make changes. I mean, look at the football [FIFA World Cup 2026], the Americans were allowed to host it after blowing up little girls in school [in reference to the February 28, 2026 missile strike in Minab, Iran].\u201d
\nHer boyfriend did, however, mention a Nord Stream-type specter.
\n\u201cCan you guarantee that they won\u2019t blow up an arena? I can\u2019t,\u201d he said, before quickly adding, \u201cbut I want to see White Russia [Belarus] and Russia both playing again. Not to be bullied.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Russia\u2019s hockey comeback a \u2018return to normality\u2019 \u2013 German opposition\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Football needs to man up and bring in Russia\u2019
\nFour days later in Italy, while working at the AC Milan-Ferencvaros UEFA Europa League game, the situation in hockey had become clearer. Sweden, Finland, Czechia, France, Austria, Norway, Denmark, and Latvia were all ready to sustain losses by refusing to take the ice against Russia. The Carney ban on Russian youngsters was two days old and Milanese fans and visitors from Budapest did not hold back.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s bulls**t,\u201d Nico, a 24-year-old Milan fan of football and hockey, told me at halftime of the game. \u201cI can\u2019t stand these people and their [two] faces. Israel, yes. Ukraine, yes. Come play, kill kids, come play, all is good. Russia, it\u2019s not the players who are fighting. If those fat fools who want more war, go fight, let the players just play.\u201d
\nOther Milan fans held the same opinion, with one drawing a parallel with football.
\n\u201cI was in Russia for a game [UEFA Champions League in 2012] and me and my wife fell in love with St. Petersburg. We go back for the World Cup in 2018 and I love the culture. Football needs to man up and bring in Russia to us again. Stop this stupid hating and blocking. We\u2019re all people. We\u2019re all just people,\u201d Andrea said.
\nHe proudly showed photos of his times in Russia and said that he would go back \u201cwhen all the stupid shooting stops.\u201d\u00a0Asked about the Canadian visa ban, he laughed and said,\u00a0\u201cIt shows they can\u2019t protect children from crazy psychos, that is all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russian fans during the Canada vs. Russia match in the women\u2019s ice hockey tournament, at the XXIII Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0Sputnik \/ Vladimir Pesnya \/ Sputnik <\/p>\n
J\u00e1nos, one of the Ferencvaros ultra leaders who organized a protest in support of law and order in Europe outside Milan\u2019s Duomo cathedral earlier on November 5, echoed Andrea\u2019s sentiment.
\n\u201cHockey showed balls to allow [Russia] back in [to] play… I don\u2019t like what they do in Ukraine, but I know what Ukraine does to my people there [ethnic Hungarians]. There\u2019s no good side in the any war, but we have worse things to deal with in Europe than have us all fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Four Nordic nations refuse to play hockey with Russia<\/p>\n
\u2018Let them all refuse and lose\u2019
\nBack in Vilnius, a top official from the Lithuanian Ice Hockey Federation (LIHF) told me on Wednesday about the pressure they\u2019re under, even though they won\u2019t play Russia anytime soon.
\nSpeaking on condition of anonymity, they said there is tremendous political pressure to \u201cmake a statement about solidarity with our neighbor [Latvia].\u201d
\nThey explained that both their chief funding source, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport, and at least one sponsor, Ober Haus (a real estate services company in the Baltic Region) have demanded that they stand with Latvia.
\n\u201cPersonally speaking, I would say let them all refuse to play and lose the games. Same as Canada, let them ban Russian boys and take the tournament to a country where people have a brain.\u201d
\nCarney and his government have stated that they will disobey the CAS ruling and not allow players or staff holding current visas to take part; 116 Russian-born players were given visas by the Carney government this year. There are nine Russians currently playing for NHL teams in Canada. Of the seven teams in the country, only Ottawa and Vancouver have none on their active rosters, but both have Russians under contract.<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, as a member of the “Hockey Legends” team number 11, takes part in the Night Hockey League gala-match at the Bolshoy Ice Dome, in Sochi, Russia<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0Sputnik \/ Alexei Druzhinin \/ Sputnik <\/p>\n
Carney is in a difficult personal and professional position. Professionally, he has relied on the large Ukrainian diaspora vote, many of whom idolize Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera and hate Russia and Russians. Personally, he is godfather to Chrystia Freeland\u2019s son. Freeland, whose maternal grandfather Michael Chomiak was also a Nazi collaborator, now works in Kiev as an \u2018economic adviser\u2019 to Vladimir Zelensky.
\nRussia\u2019s ice hockey federation has asked the IIHF to act: force Canada to allow Russian kids play or move the tournament. According to the Lithuanian official, the latter is most likely to happen.<\/p>\n
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The Cold War\u2019s strangest diplomatic tool is back on the ice<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada can\u2019t back down and the [IIHF] are worried about terror attacks.\u201d
\nThis scenario, they believe, is what will force their hand.
\n\u201cYou need to know that many Ukrainians live out in Alberta [where the competition will take place from December 26 to January 5]. It would not be too impossible that there is attacks on Russian players, or bomb threats, this is all they need to do.\u201d
\nThe puck is firmly under IIHF control. They can pull the tournament out of Canada and hand it to the US. They will worry about national federations breaking away and forming a new global organization, but the chances of that are about as much as an ice cube\u2019s chance in a volcano. What remains to be seen is if the sports administrators and politicians listen to their public and realize that they now can take a historic step to save their sport, and the world. Because sports diplomacy is needed now more than ever. The bullies cannot win, off the ice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A court opened the door to Russia\u2019s hockey return \u2013 politicians want it slammed shut, and some fans have had enough When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decided to refuse…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t