Lawyer of the FHR responded to information about the appeal of the IIHF on the admission of Russia

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) had no complaints against the CAS arbitrators when considering the case related to the admission of Russian national teams. This was reported by Anna Kozmenko, partner of the international firm Curtis, who represented the interests of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (FHR) in CAS.

Earlier, the TV channel TSN reported that the IIHF filed an appeal against the decision of CAS to allow Russian teams to the tournaments. It was noted that the International Federation made such a decision on the basis that two of the three judges who delivered the verdict in this case had undisclosed business ties with Russia.

“We are not aware that the IIHF has challenged the award, which can only be done before the Swiss Supreme Court. It is worth noting that during the arbitration proceedings, the IIHF did not raise any objections to the formation of the composition of the arbitration, nor challenged the arbitrators, which could and should have done if it believed that such grounds exist, based on publicly available information about the members of the arbitration at the time of its formation, Kozmenko said.

According to Kozmenko, the IIHF did not raise any objections to the proper conduct of the proceedings during the trial, confirming also at the end of the hearing that it had no such objections.

Giulio Palermo, an Italian, chaired the CAS panel of judges, which included Ismail Selim (Egypt) and Mark Howell (UK). The Swiss newspaper Inside Paradeplatz previously reported that Palermo was a speaker at the Russian International Arbitration Congress (RIAC) in Moscow on September 22, and Selim participated a year earlier in a similar seminar organized by the Cairo Regional Center for International Commercial Arbitration together with a Russian law firm.

CAS on October 30 ordered the IIHF to allow Russian teams to the tournaments of the season 2026/27.