Despite Russia impasse, Germany still hoping to host Men's Ice Hockey World Championship

A German government spokesman has said that despite talks with the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB), the International Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) and others, the impasse caused by last week's Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling remains.

Since last Friday's decision, several leading ice hockey nations, including Finland, Sweden and Czechia have said they would refrain from playing against Russia in any tournament in which it is allowed to take part. Several key sponsors have also threatened to pull out, should the Russians be allowed to play.

The first tournament to be affected would be the Men's World Juniors, which opens in Canada late next month, followed by the IIHF's premier event, the Men's World Championship, to be hosted by Germany in May.

Hosting Worlds 'practically impossible'

German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius told reporters in Berlin on Friday that talks held with various stakeholders had made clear that Russian participation would render the hosting of the World Championship "practically impossible, both from a sporting and an economic perspective."

However, he also said talks would continue and the government still hoped for a diplomatic solution that would allow Germany to host the World Championship – as planned – in Gelsenkirchen, Mannheim and Düsseldorf next May.

"Our goal must be to hold the tournaments as scheduled. However, given the boycotts that would follow Russia's readmission, that would effectively be impossible. For this reason, we intend to explore—through dialogue—how we can still ensure the tournament takes place," he said.

Following last Friday's CAS decision ruling that the IIHF must allow Russia to return to international play, DEB chairman Frank Lutz had conceded that Germany may be forced to consider withdrawing as World Championship host.

German visa restrictions on Russians in place

Asked at Friday's press conference whether Germany could issue visas to a Russian team for the tournament, a German interior ministry spokesman declined to answer categorically, but did indicate that this would be difficult due to restrictions currently in place. 

"At a time when Russia is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine, there can be no 'normalcy'—and we will certainly not pretend that there is," Martin Giese said.

Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney categorically ruled out Russian players taking part in the World Juniors in Alberta.

"While Russia and Belarus are supporting this illegal, unjustified ​war in Ukraine, as long as that's going on, there will be none of those athletes competing for their countries in Canada," he said.

"So, ​if you're asking specifically about the World Juniors, the Russians will not be there."

Consensus remains elusive

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also weighed in on the issue, accusing countries opposing Russia's return to international sport of violating the rights of his country's athletes

The IIHF Council had originally called two days of meetings, on Monday and Tuesday to try to reach a consensus on how to respond to the CAS decision – before extending discussions for a third day, on Thursday. By Friday, its members had evidently still not reached a consensus.

This comes as the Women's Ice Hockey World Championship, which is not affected by the CAS decision, opened in Denmark – and with the clock ticking towards the start of the World Juniors in Alberta on December 26,