Ice Hockey World Cup in Germany: Federal Government considers hosting with Russia’s participation to be “impossible”

The federal government has practically ruled out hosting the Ice Hockey World Cup in Germany next May if the Russian national team is admitted.

After discussions with the German Ice Hockey Federation DEB, the world association IHF and the German Olympic Sports Confederation DOSB, government spokesman Stefan Kornelius explained at the federal press conference that due to the broad rejection of other nations as well as business and media partners, "the feasibility of the tournament is technically and economically impossible."

The International Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) had approved Russia's participation in international tournaments the previous week, triggering a heated debate. Several nations had announced that they wanted to boycott World Cup games against Russia, including reigning world champion Finland.

»Our goal must be to hold the tournaments as planned. "In view of the boycotts if Russia were admitted, that would actually not be possible," said Kornelius: "And that's why we now actually want to explore options through discussions as to how we can still allow the tournament to take place."