Chinas face possible exclusion from the ice hockey tournament at next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics in spite of its host status because of the team’s “insufficient sporting standard.”
“This question really arises for the men’s team, not for the women’s team,” Luc Tardif, the new president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), said on Monday.
“There are going to be games for the China team that will be overseen by an IIHF official and a decision will be made afterwards.
“Watching a team being beaten 15-0 is not good for anyone, not for China or for ice hockey.”
A decision will be taken “by the end of the (October),” said Tardif, who was elected to the presidency on Saturday.
As host nation, China has an automatic qualification for the Beiing Games but they are only ranked 32nd in the world and have not played any matches since 2019.
Drawn in Group A of the men’s tournament, China would find itself up against Canada, the United States and Germany — teams that would likely thrash the Chinese.
“If it is not possible for China, we need a plan B and it will be (decided) by the ‘ranking’ of Norway,” said Tardif.
Norway, ranked 11th, is the top nation not qualified among those that competed at the end of August in the second of three Olympic qualifying tournaments.
China’s women’s team, ranked 20th, has been placed in Group B along with Japan and three teams to be determined through November’s final qualifying tournaments.
Tardif also said plans to have NHL players, including stars Connor McDavid and Alex Ovechkin, at the Olympics are “in good shape.”
“We have an agreement in principle from the NHL,” Tardif said. “We must now finalize with the NHL players’ association and other stakeholders.
“The devil is in the details. There is a shared desire, everyone wants it.”
The NHL gave its agreement in early September to arrange a break in its regular season from February 3-22 to allow players to make the trip to China.
That was not the case in 2018 when the Games were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
On that occasion — and contrary to a routine it had held since 1998 — the NHL decided the regular season would have been too disrupted and there was little benefit in promoting the game in South Korea.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.