The key facts

  • Switzerland will withdraw only from the match against Russia on December 27, but not from the World Championship itself
  • Russia will replace Norway in Group B under the updated IIHF calendar following the CAS ruling
  • On November 5, the Swiss federation's president called talk of a boycott hasty, but on November 8 the board of directors decided to withdraw from the match

Skipping the match, but not the tournament

The board of directors of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation (SIHF) has decided that the country's junior national team will not play against Russia at the 2027 World Championship, as announced on the organization's official website and reported by Life.ru. The match is scheduled for December 27. At the same time, the Swiss are not withdrawing from the tournament itself — only the match against the Russian team will be skipped.

The reason — Russia's return to the calendar

The decision was prompted by the updated calendar of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), under which Russia replaces Norway in Group B, while Norway is moved to Division I Group A. The Russians' return followed a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which ordered the IIHF to admit Russian national teams to tournaments of the 2026/27 season and overturned five resolutions on the basis of which the teams had been suspended. Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev called the ruling final and binding. At the SIHF, the decision to withdraw from the match was explained by deliberations over sporting, political and public circumstances, with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine cited as the grounds.

The position changed within two days

It is telling how quickly the Swiss side's position shifted: on November 5, federation president Marc Luthi spoke against hasty decisions, saying the issue lay 'not in the political but in the sporting plane,' and considered talk of a boycott premature until the IIHF defined the procedure for implementing the CAS ruling. However, two days later, the SIHF board of directors announced a refusal to play against the Russians. The World Junior Championship will be held from December 26, 2026 to January 5, 2027 in the Canadian cities of Edmonton and Red Deer; Russia is to be seeded tenth in the participants' ranking. It remains unclear how the IIHF and the organizers will handle the unplayed match — a forfeit, a points award or some other option is not described in the sources.