Russia will not compete in the 2027 World Hockey Championship
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has officially confirmed the group draw for the 2027 World Championship, which will be hosted by the German cities of Düsseldorf and Mannheim, with the Russian national team excluded. Meanwhile, after a twenty-year hiatus, the Ukrainian national team has returned to the elite division and will play its matches in Group A.
The Ukrainian hockey players’ opponents in Group A will be the reigning world champion Finland, as well as the national teams of Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Latvia, Austria, and Slovenia.
The organizers have placed the national teams of Canada, the United States, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Norway, Kazakhstan, and Hungary in the parallel Group B. The aggressor country has been completely excluded from the list of participants in both eight-team tournament groups, meaning it will miss its sixth consecutive world championship due to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian men’s national hockey team is ranked 19th in the world.
A former player on Kosovo’s youth national soccer team died in a car accident at the age of 22.
