IIHF council member Larsson suggests Russia may itself withdraw from the 2027 World Junior Championship

Larsson hopes Russia will withdraw voluntarily

Anders Larsson, president of the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) council, has suggested that Russia may voluntarily withdraw from the 2027 World Junior Championship, despite the sports arbitration ruling in its favor. His comments were reported by the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti; he also spoke in an interview with the Swedish TV channel SVT. “Right now I don't think any decisions are impossible. It's important that we try to find other paths for further development. Of course, it would be desirable for them not to come,” Larsson said. When journalists asked what might make Russia itself withdraw from the championship, he replied that he did not know: “Hard to say — you'd have to ask them.”

The CAS ruling and the IIHF's response

The discussion was prompted by a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dated October 30: the court found the IIHF's arguments that Russian national teams could not participate for security reasons insufficient and ordered the federation to admit the teams to five world championships of the 2026/27 season, including the junior tournament. The IIHF said it disagreed with the verdict but was obliged to comply with it, and warned of serious organizational difficulties — changes to the lineup of participants and the match schedule, as well as issues with visas, travel and security.

The position of European federations and the tournament format

An additional problem is created by the position of a number of European federations: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Latvia and other countries have spoken out against the return of Russian hockey players. Some national teams have announced that they do not intend to take the ice against Russia, although they are not going to withdraw from the tournaments. Larsson believes it is necessary to find out how the Russian side will react to other teams refusing to play matches against it.

What has already changed in practice

The World Junior Championship will be held from December 26, 2026 to January 5, 2027 in the Canadian cities of Edmonton and Red Deer. According to Life.ru, the Russian Ice Hockey Federation has already received notification from the IIHF that the Russian junior national team has been included among the participants, and the corresponding changes have been sent to the national federations. Earlier, the same outlet reported that the IIHF notified Norway that its national team would be replaced by the Russian team: Russia is to take the tenth spot in the participants' ranking and fall into Group B, while Norway is planned to be moved to Division IA. At the same time, the final conditions for the Russian team's participation remain a subject of discussion — that is, inclusion in the preliminary schedule has already taken place, but the question of whether the team will actually compete has not been closed. The senior world championship of the season is to be held in Germany in May 2027.