Karam Bassi

From TSN broadcaster and colleague Gord Miller, who has worked countless international hockey events in his career, on today's CAS ruling: ``The decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn the IIHF’s ban on the participation of Russian and Belarussian teams immediately throws the world of international hockey into complete chaos. Some key issues: -can the IIHF appeal? It’s possible it could go to the Supreme Court of Switzerland , but it’s unlikely the court would overturn a CAS decision, as CAS is considered the “final word” in matters of sport. The IIHF council is meeting Monday to discuss next steps. -will governments grant visas to Russian teams to compete? The Russian Ice Hockey Federation is part of the Russian government, the Canadian government said earlier this year it would not permit Russian national teams to enter the country, unlike individual Russian athletes. -will some federations refuse to host events at which Russian teams are present? There are serious security concerns about the safety of participants and spectators, nations refusing to host is a real possibility. -will there be a boycott? The initial feeling is that individual national federations won’t, but what their national governments do is another matter. Anti-Russian sentiment in Europe is strong. -how much will the IIHF push back? Russia (with the help of former president Rene Fasel) worked hard behind the scenes at the recent congress to engineer the election of pro-Russian candidates to the IIHF council. Blaming this decision on CAS would allow those members to quietly get what they want. Finally, this is a devastating decision for Ukraine in countless ways, not the least of which is that their men’s national team earned promotion to the top division of the upcoming Men’s World Championship as the second place finisher in Division 1A last season. If Russia is back in, that pushes Ukraine out, which is an ethical, political and PR nightmare for the IIHF.”