Russia to appeal IIHF ban on the grounds of discrimination

In case you missed it yesterday, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has officially banned both Russia and Belarus from international competitions indefinitely.

In addition, the IIHF has revoked hosting status from Russia for the 2023 World Junior Championships, which was scheduled to be held in Siberia in December, 2022 and January, 2023. 

According to the IIHF, this means that Russian and Belarusian teams will miss at least these events:

2022 IIHF Continental Cup (4-6 March 2022)
-Belarus club team HK Gomel would not participate

2022 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship (21 April-01 May 2022) 
-Russia and Belarus men’s U18 teams would not participate

2022 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship (13-29 May 2022)
-ROC and Belarus men’s national teams would not participate

2022 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s Word Championship (Dates TBB) 
-Russia women’s U18 national team would not participate 

2022 IIHF World Junior Championship (Dates TBD)
-Russia men’s U20 national teams would not participate 

2022 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship (26 August-4 September 2022)
-ROC women’s national team would not participate

Any potential sportive impact of the Council decision on tournament seeding and promotion/relegation will be announced in the coming weeks. 

The 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship was scheduled to take place from 26 December 2022 to 5 January 2023. The IIHF will initiate discussions in the coming months to find a new host for the event.

Just today the Russian Hockey Federation announced that it is appealing the decision on the grounds of discrimination.

The problem that Russia will have in appeal is that a number of the IIHF's member teams have announced that they refuse to compete again Russia.

Honestly, I'm sure this was a tough decision for the IIHF to make and they'd have taken criticism regardless of what they decided to do. I'm sure people would be upset if they did nothing and I'm sure there are people upset with this decision. It really is a lose/lose situation, but personally I believe that taking a moral stance is admirable. While I feel for the athletes who won't be able to compete in these events due to the actions of their governments, it's clear to me that the IIHF had to impose sanctions and I feel that this does a good job of addressing things.