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Upcoming Men's FIH Hockey World Cup Will Arrange more Aggressive

Indian female hockey squad defence Deep Grace Ekka says competing against teams that are strong within The Netherlands during the upcoming away portion in the FIH Pro League could help the team adjust to the environment and make preparations for the World Cup in July.

India is scheduled to take on Belgium, Argentina, Netherlands and the United States this month at the FIH Hockey Pro League.

The moment that Russian Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine just four days after the "Russian Olympic Committee" (ROC) fell short of winning the gold medal game of the ice hockey for men at the 2022 Winter Olympics, the consequences went beyond the doping scandal Ukraine's athletes have faced in recent times.

In the event that the ROC team fell to Finland in Beijing this past February or four years ago at the time the "Olympic Athletes from Russia" took home gold, nobody believed in the truth regarding who these athletes were and what they actually represented. It was despite being banned from wearing flags or uniforms bearing the Russian flag or uniform because of sanctions that were imposed following the McLaren Report revealed evidence of Doping by the government in the country.

This year this year, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has gone a step furtherin banning Russia as well as Belarus from participating in any competitions. The event in Finland begins on Friday.

"We were incredibly shocked to see the images that have come out of Ukraine," IIHF President Luc Tardif said in a statement that announced the move back in February. "I have been in close contact with the Ice Hockey Federation of Ukraine, and we hope for all Ukrainians that this conflict can be resolved in a peaceful way and without the need for further violence," Tardif added.

The IIHF's decision to ban the two nations came with lightning speed compared to how it conducted itself during the previous World Championship. It took several weeks for the organization to make the decision to revoke Belarus the right to host the event as a result of the bloody actions of powerful politician Alexander Lukashenko's arrest of protesters against his controversial reelection August of 2020.

The IIHF has also taken away Russia's option to be the host for this year's World Juniors and followed that up by denying it the men's World Championship, which was scheduled to be held by Vladimir Putin's home town, St. Petersburg.

For this first time in a long time the hockey fan will be able to be able to watch the World Championship that from a pure sporting perspective will only be weakened due to the absence of an Russian entry, claims Szemberg.

"It has a substantial sporting impact, which is obvious as Russia is one of the leading hockey nations," the official said. "One perennial medal contender will not play. This is like, say, the FIFA World Cup without Germany or Brazil."

"We have a busy schedule ahead of us in the lead-up to the FIH Hockey Women's World Cup 2022, and we are looking forward to it because the more games we play against the stronger teams, the better prepared we will be for the tournament," Ekka declared in an Hockey India release.

The IIHF's decision is it was the "only reasonable decision," according to Szymon Szemberg who is the director general of the Alliance of European Hockey Clubs (ECH).

"To have Russia in the WM (World Championship) -- with their war of aggression, genocide and war crimes, also adding the very close links between the Russian ice hockey federation, KHL to Putin and the Kremlin -- would have been unthinkable," Szemberg said to DW.

A hockey scholar Andrew Podnieks, who has published more than 100 works on the subject, agrees.

"Politics and sport do go hand in hand," Podnieks stated to DW. "The IIHF cannot help Ukraine win the war. It is a hockey organization, and it is doing the only thing it can do to support Ukraine and to show disgust for the invasion... The morality of sport is far more important than having one team or another compete in an event."

However, Podnieks stresses that by exclusion of the two countries in the IIHF, the IIHF has achieved the best of an unfortunate situation.

"If Russia and Belarus were at the tournament, it would cause a huge controversy and much of the conversation around the tournament would be about their participation," he stated. "By not having them here, it strengthens an event where, because of events, there could be no normal."

Today, Canada (2nd-ranked team) has the opportunity to take the record they share alongside Russia (3rd) in full -- in an event with 16 teams in which Russia replaces 13th-ranked France along with Austria (17th) are set to take to the ice to replace in the place of Belarus (14th).

With no conclusion to the conflict in Ukraine on the horizon One has to ask what the impact of not having Russia in this year's Ice Hockey World Championship will be something that fans have to accept in the future.