IIHF World Championship

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has dropped Belarus as a co-host for the 2021 World Championship due to ongoing political unrest in the Eastern European nation.

Protests emerged across Belarus in June last year amid anger over the jailing of opposition figures, economic stagnation, and President Alexander Lukashenko’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Lukashenko, dubbed “Europe’s last dictator” by critics, claimed vodka and saunas could keep Covid-19 at bay before catching the virus and saying he recovered “on his feet” without showing any symptoms.

Last week, the IIHF announced that the 2021 World Championship would not be staged in the former-Soviet nation “in the face of the growing safety and security concerns related to both the rising political unrest and COVID-19.”

The announcement came as a personal blow to Mr Lukashenko, who lobbied to have Belarus named as co-hosts alongside neighbours Latvia.

The Belarusian government had hoped that holding part of the tournament in Minsk would have brought normality back to the country, following last year’s disputed presidential election.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is believed to have won the 2020 presidential election, with most European countries, the United States, and Canada no longer regarding Mr Lukashenko as the legitimate leader of Belarus.

The IIHF decided to remove Belarus as a co-host for the tournament after major sponsors, Skoda and Liqui, said they would withdraw financial support if games were held in Minsk.

“We’ve been a proud partner [of the IIHF World Championships] for 28 years,” Skoda tweeted earlier this month. “But we also respect & promote all human rights. Therefore, Skoda will withdraw from sponsoring the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship if Belarus is confirmed to be co-hosting the event.”

Tournament organisers are yet to decide where the tournament will be staged, with scheduled co-host Latvia, and previous hosts Denmark and Slovakia considered leading candidates.

The Ice hockey World tournament is due to begin on 21 May but could be postponed to facilitate a change of hosts.

Minsk in Belarus was originally set to co-host the event along with Riga in Latvia before it was stripped of the rights due to safety and security concerns in the country.

Latvia has offered to hold the entire tournament, but IIHF President René Fasel is currently engaged in talks with Herning in Denmark and Bratislava in Slovakia over the possibility of staging matches.

The Latvian Ice Hockey Federation President Aigars Kalvitis confirmed an IIHF delegation has visited the country.

Discussions reportedly centred around the potential venues for the event, with the Arena Riga already earmarked to host matches.

The Olympic Sports Center and Daugava Ice Hall’s ability to stage matches was among the topics discussed, as well as availability of accommodation, COVID-19 regulations, broadcasting and the finances of the event.

Kalvitis told Latvian website TVNET that the IIHF had held a consultation between all 16 participating nations at the tournament.

He added that Latvia believed it could successfully hold the World Championship as a single host.

The 16-team IIHF World Championship is due to be held from May 21 to June 6.

Russia had offered to step in as a replacement for Belarus but the country is barred from being awarded or hosting major events until December 2022 under the series of sanctions imposed on the nation by the World Anti-Doping Agency as punishment for the manipulation of the Moscow Laboratory data.

The IIHF had come under pressure to move the event from Minsk because of political unrest in the nation, where protesters – including athletes – have allegedly been arrested, beaten and tortured for participating in demonstrations against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Lukashenko, who also heads the country’s National Olympic Committee, has been banned from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics along with Belarusian Ice Hockey Association President Dmitri Baskov.