The World Hockey Championship ended a few days ago, and The results of the championship are still being discussed. But not specifically the tournament, which was again held without the Russian team, but only what its results led to. After the competition in the Czech Republic, the positions of the men's national teams in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) rankings changed. This, oddly enough, mainly affected the Russians: our country rose to second place in the federation’s list.
This happened thanks to the failure of the Finnish team, which was eliminated at the quarterfinal stage and took the final eighth place. The position of Russia, suspended from international tournaments under the auspices of the IIHF for political reasons, is effectively frozen in the federation’s ranking for the duration of the sanctions — we continue to gain points thanks to the results shown in previous championships and the Olympics before the ban was imposed, and therefore we remain among the leaders.
It's funny that in a year Russia, under certain circumstances, may even rise to first place. If the Canadian team fails at the 2025 World Cup the same way it happened at the last world championship, where the Maple team were left without medals for the first time since 2018, then the Russians will top the IIHF rankings. Let us remind you that the Russian team will also miss the next World Cup. The West is obviously not very happy about the prospect that Russia, even under conditions of artificial isolation, is moving upward. Therefore, the IIHF intends to consider making adjustments to its own system. Federation President Luc Tardif personally informed Sport:
“»Yes, this will be discussed by the IIHF Coordination Committee, which will submit a proposal to the IIHF Council at the end of August.»
The initiator of this fuss was Finland. Hardly anyone is surprised by this. The Finns, instead of wondering why their national team finished outside the world championship podium for the second year in a row and is sliding down, are only concerned with how to play a dirty trick on Russia. It was the Chairman of the Finnish Hockey Federation, member of the IIHF Council Heikki Hietanen, who yesterday announced the need to revise the system for calculating rating points for Russia, supposedly in order to avoid “curious situations.” Former vice-president of the IIHF, now the mayor of Tampere, Kalervo Kummola, called the situation with the Russians coming into second place completely ridiculous and called for the ranking to be closed. The 78-year-old official has apparently become senile, because it is his proposal that looks ridiculous and stupid.
Why? Yes, because the IIHF rating has practical significance. Even René Fasel noted the need to introduce this system in 2003 to simply reflect “the long-term quality of national hockey programs, as well as their orientation in international hockey.” Yes, the mechanism itself is not ideal and has been repeatedly criticized for ignoring the results of the World Cup. But it is the IIHF ranking that determines the seeding of national teams for the next World Championship, and also allows for the selection of teams for their participation in the Winter Olympic Games without participating in the qualifying round. This is very important for Russia: our hockey team will not lose its seeding after the IIHF returns us to the international arena (sooner or later this is bound to happen).
In the end, it was the IIHF representatives who made fools of themselves. Now they are bending under the tears of the Finns. They themselves started the mess by removing Russia under the stupid pretext of “security reasons”, they themselves suffer from this and are drowning in problems, while they themselves are absurdly trying to get out and change their own system. But for what?
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the position of the editors
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