The national teams of Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic intend to refuse to participate in the 2028 Ice Hockey World Cup if the Russian national team participates in it. Presumably the NHL is already aware of his situation. The publication reported this iDNES.cz With reference to a knowledgeable source.
Later, the head of the Finnish Hockey Federation, Heikki Hietanen, in a conversation with the newspaper Iltalehti, denied this information. He described it as “journalistic speculation” and declined to comment.
The 2028 World Cup is scheduled to be held in Canada and the Czech Republic. The group stage matches and part of the qualifiers will be hosted by the cities of Prague and Calgary, while the decisive semi-finals and final matches will be held in Edmonton.
Eight teams are expected to participate in the tournament. However, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman previously stated that the final decision on whether to accept the Russian team remains open at the moment.
The Ukrainian national team did not participate in the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Italy. The reason for the boycott was the presence of representatives of Russia and Belarus at the ceremony. Previously, Ukrainians did not participate in the opening ceremony of the competition