The Belarusian Ice Hockey Association ( be, Федэрацыя хакея Рэспублікі Беларусь, russian: Федерация хоккея Республики Беларусь) is the governing body of

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

. It was founded on 6 March 1992 and became a member of the

IIHF The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 m ...

on 2 May 1992. The Belarusian Ice Hockey Association hosted the

2014 IIHF World Championship The 2014 IIHF World Championship was hosted by Belarus in its capital, Minsk, held from 9–25 May 2014. Sixteen national teams were competing in two venues, the Minsk-Arena and Chizhovka-Arena. It was the first time Belarus hosted the tournamen ...

, and was planned to co-host the

2021 IIHF World Championship The 2021 IIHF World Championship () took place from 21 May to 6 June 2021. It was originally to be co-hosted by Minsk, Belarus and Riga, Latvia, as the IIHF announced on 19 May 2017 in Cologne, Germany. Their joint bid won by a very tight margi ...

. Because of "safety and security issues," the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 ...

decided that the 2021 World Championship would not be played in Belarus. Since 9 September 2020, the Belarusian Ice Hockey Association has been headed by

Dzmitry Baskau Dzmitry Baskau ( Belarusian: Дзмітрый Юр’евіч Баскаў, Russian: Дмитрий Юрьевич Басков; born on August 25, 1978, in Minsk, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic) is a Belarusian former ice hockey player a ...

who is accused of being involved in the killing of protester Raman Bandarenka. For this reason, a travel ban against Baskau was imposed by the governments of Latvia and

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. On September 8, 2021, the

disqualified him for five years. For ten months, the

investigated his actions and found that Baskau used discrimination and threats against sportspersons because of their political views. Due to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...

, the

banned all Belarusian national and club teams from its events indefinitely, and Hockey Canada banned Belarus’s “participation in events held in Canada that do not fall under the IIHF’s jurisdiction.”

References

External links

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Belarus
at IIHF.com Ice hockey in Belarus International Ice Hockey Federation members Ice hockey governing bodies in Europe Sports organizations established in 1992 {{Icehockey-org-stub