Russia and Ukraine War | Hockey World Cup 2027: Let's go, Sbornaja, fight and win!

Germany Cup 2021: Russia's Yuri Pautow (m.) celebrates his goal with his teammates Matvey Guskov (l.) and Maxim Zyplakow. Will Sbornaja also cheer at the 2027 World Cup in Germany? Photo: dpa/Bernd Thissen As is well known, Germany was defended in the Hindu Kush in the 2000s. Today the front has moved several thousand kilometers west to the Dnipro. Where Russia has been waging a brutal war of aggression for more than four and a half years, the aim is not only to repel Putin's horde, but also to defend "Western values". At least that is what the political class in the European Union has been telling us since the beginning of the war.

The Ukraine conflict quickly transferred from politics to sport. At countless tournaments and competitions, Russian athletes were forced to watch or compete under a neutral flag. Politicians have practically taken sport by the hand like a small child and told it exactly what it should and should not do.

That seems to be gradually changing. The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) recently lifted the ban on the Russian ice hockey team for next year's World Cup in Germany. This is causing a stir in Germany beyond the boundaries of sport - especially since the Left and the AfD welcome Russia's return to the ice, which only makes my colleague Alexander Ludewig shake his head.

But there are reasons for the Ice Sputniks to take part. Like Russia, other countries have already committed war crimes - but at least in sport they have not been outlawed for it. Or did some authority declare a boycott against US athletes after the troops from “God’s Own Country” invaded Iraq in 2003? The war waged by the then Bush administration plunged an entire region into chaos and claimed countless lives. The US team was still able to take part in the World Ice Hockey Championships in 2004 (in the Czech Republic) and 2005 (in Austria).

And Israel - admittedly not a major power in winter sports - has also done relatively well in ice hockey recently: In April of this year, the men's national team won the gold medal at the Division II B World Championship in Bulgaria's capital Sofia. According to the principle of equality, the Israelis, like the Russians, should not have taken part in countless eliminations because the government in Tel Aviv recently waged a war of retaliation not only against the Palestinians, but also attacked targets in Iran together with the USA. Since then, the Gaza Strip has resembled more of a lunar landscape than a coastal area.

It is also a mystery why a top athlete from Vladivostok or Nizhny Novgorod should pay for the crimes of a deluded Kremlin ruler. If an athlete has not taken part in a war, neither condones it nor calls for it - then he must be allowed to take part in a sporting event such as the Ice Hockey World Cup. Everything else is reminiscent of clan-like.

Admittedly, court rulings are not always comprehensible. And often enough there are reasons to criticize them. And yet the rule of law is an achievement of modern, civil societies. The current example of Manchester City makes it clear how important it is in sport. In September, the Premier League football club was found guilty of almost all of more than 100 charges by an independent commission. According to the verdict, the club, which is majority owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi, systematically violated financial rules between 2009 and 2018. City will probably have to go to the second division. The verdict shows the limits to the financial madness in professional football. Or at least tries to. This is precisely why a functioning jurisdiction in sport is important and should be respected – no matter what the individual decision is.

The war in Ukraine must not continue for a day. Too many people have already lost their lives due to Russian drone fire. Western arms deliveries have not dissuaded Putin from his intention to annex part of Ukraine into Russian territory. They won't do it again. And so the West will have no choice but to approach the Kremlin and at least attempt to resolve the conflict, which began before the Russian attack in February 2022, through negotiations. The strategy of bringing Moscow to its knees by arming Ukraine has long since failed.

Sport, as many politicians seem to have forgotten, brings people together and – despite all the competition – does not divide them. This is not only evident in the local sports hall, where people from different countries and cultures come together every day. Why shouldn't this kind of approach also work on the big stage? That's another reason why I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Sbornaja next year when she races across the ice on runners in Germany. Because she hasn't been allowed to do that for too long.

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