FRANKFURT, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled on Friday that Russian teams can compete in next year's men's and women's world championships, overturning International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) decisions to exclude them from its competitions.
CAS upheld appeals lodged by the Russian Ice Hockey Federation against the IIHF barring its teams from participating in events during the 2026-27 season.
The Lausanne-based court said the IIHF had not presented sufficient evidence to justify its assessment that security concerns required Russia's continued exclusion from its competitions.
The first tournament affected by the ruling is the world junior championship in Canada, which begins on December 26.
Other events covered include next year's men's and women's world championships.
CAS said the ruling did not address issues such as whether Russian teams should compete under a neutral flag and without national symbols, as athletes from the country have done in other sports.
RUSSIA WELCOMES RULING
The IIHF has excluded Russia, which has won five IIHF world titles as an independent nation, from most international ice hockey competitions since 2022 following the country's invasion of Ukraine.
"Russia is returning to world hockey. This place rightfully belongs to us, and discrimination in hockey has been brought to an end," Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev told state television channelVesti.
The IIHF said it was disappointed by the outcome.
"TheIIHF disagrees with this aspect of the ruling and maintains that its decisions were necessary to protect the safety and security of all participants and safeguard the integrity of its competitions," the federation said.
Germany, host of the men's world championship in May, said the ruling had significant implications for the tournament.
"Our position remains unchanged: We reject the return of Russian national teams to international ice hockey tournaments," German Ice Hockey Federation chairman Frank H. Lutz said.
The Czech Ice Hockey Association, whose country is hosting the women's Under-18 world championship in January, said it was "very unpleasantly surprised" by the decision.
"The current position of Czech Hockey does not change with the CAS decision," Czech Hockey General Secretary Jan Cerny said.
Other European nations including Sweden, Finland and Austria also criticised the ruling.
"Our position is that Russia cannot participate in international championships in the current situation," Swedish Ice Hockey Association chairman Anders Larsson said.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Karan Prashant Saxena in Bengaluru, Trevor Stynes in Gdansk and Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Friederike Heine and Ed Osmond)
