The IIHF Council has banned individual NHL players from playing for their national teams at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, bypassing the decision of the league itself, which had previously refused to let hockey players go to the tournament in the Chinese capital, according to the official website of the federation.

NHL will not let Russian players go to the Olympics as an exception Hockey “Cooperation between the IIHF, the NHL, the NHLPA (players' union) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is vital to the development of hockey in the world. Any action that calls into question this cooperation is unacceptable. Therefore, since the NHL and NHLPA did not release players for the Games in Beijing, the IIHF will not give consent to the participation of hockey players from the NHL in the Olympics in direct violation of their contracts with the clubs, ”said Luc Tardif, head of the IIHF.

The Olympic Games will be held from 4 to 20 February in Beijing. The NHL announced in December that it would not let its players go to China. This will be the second non-NHL Games in a row. In 2018, the Olympic tournament in Pyeongchang was won by Russian hockey players under the leadership of Oleg Znark, who acted in the status of "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR).

Earlier it was reported that the Russian Hockey Federation (FHR) is trying to find a way for Russian players to take part in the Games. The FHR hoped that NHL players would be able to play in Beijing if they agreed with their clubs. It was also noted that the IIHF will not prevent the participation of players in the Olympic tournament if the hockey players were previously included in the extended list of candidates for the national team.

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