OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — The Russian Hockey Federation is seeking to have next month’s world junior hockey championships either relocated or canceled in light of Canada’s decision to bar Russia from participating in the tournament.
Russian news agency TASS on Thursday also that reported hockey federation president Vladislav Tretiak threatened to seek compensation from Canada and potentially Germany, host of the 2027 men’s world championship in May, if Russia is denied participation.
Speaking at a presidential sports council meeting in Moscow, Tretiak said he’s also asked the International Ice Hockey Federation’s ethics council to investigate and punish national federations organizing boycotts of games involving Russia.
“There are rules: if a team does not take the ice, it receives a forfeit loss and sanctions are imposed,” Tretiak told TASS in comments translated from Russian. “The IIHF has a way out — either allow us to participate or, if we cannot enter Canada, move the championship, not hold it at all or impose sanctions on Canada.”
Tretiak spoke a day after Canada confirmed Russian players would not be permitted to compete at the 10-nation tournament set to open in Alberta on Dec. 26. Canada took its position in response to a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling last month that reinstated Russia to international hockey.
The ruling overturned the IIHF’s Russian ban, which was imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The IIHF has declined to comment on the dispute and is caught in the middle of an escalating feud. Numerous hockey federations, including Finland and Sweden, have announced they will refuse to play games scheduled against Russia. Several tournament sponsors have also threatened to bow out if Russia is allowed to compete.
The IIHF would be hard-pressed to relocate the junior tournament at such a late stage, and it would be difficult to find a nation — other than Russia — to step in as host.
On Sunday, Norway announced it was informed by the IIHF that it would be bumped from the tournament to make room for Russia. The IIHF has yet to announce that change.
See AP’s full sports coverage here
FILE - Russia players celebrate during the Ice Hockey World Championship group A match between the Russia and Sweden in Riga, Latvia, May 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Roman Koksarov, File)
“Complete and utter nonsense.” That's how Australia captain Pat Cummins responded to Usman Khawaja's claim that the entire team was in on the ball-tampering plot that became known as “Sandpapergate” and rocked cricket in 2018.
Cummins staged an extraordinary news conference Friday at the Sydney Cricket Ground, hours ahead Australia’s home-season opening one-day international against England in Perth, to address the allegations published this week in his longtime teammate's autobiography.
He opened the packed news conference by saying he was prepared to stay and answer questions all day if needed, because he wanted to draw a line under the sorry saga.
In the immediate aftermath of a Cricket Australia investigation into the cheating attempt three players received unprecedented bans — Steve Smith and David Warner, then captain and vice-captain, for 12 months; Cameron Bancroft, who was caught on camera using sandpaper on the ball, for nine months.
The episode has remained so divisive that even eight years later the innuendo and acrimony will mean Cummins' comments in a 70-minute live stand-up will not end questions over who knew what and when.
Cummins, who was part of the bowling attack in that test at Cape Town against South Africa, accused Khawaja of being “casual” and “flippant” by suggesting everyone in the locker room was aware of the sandpaper plot.
“When he says we all knew, if by that he means that we knew sandpaper was going out in the field, he’s 100% wrong,” Cummins said. “I’ve said that consistently for the last eight years. I did not know that was happening.
“But I think Usman actually says things that are actually far more serious than that. He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper. That’s complete and utter nonsense.”
Khawaja said he published his account of the episode in a bid to support the three players who he believed had been made scapegoats for the team.
He's had public support from Warner, who responded on social media that the Cricket Australia investigation at the time was rushed and botched. Warner and Smith resumed their international careers in 2019 and remained key players for Australia. Warner retired in 2024, and Smith is still in the squad.
The management has been overhauled. Head coach Darren Lehmann was replaced after the South Africa series by Justin Langer, who was succeeded by Andrew McDonald in 2022. Veteran wicketkeeper Tim Paine replaced Smith as test captain before Cummins took over in 2021.
Cricket Australia has a new chairman and CEO, Todd Greenberg, who has ruled out reopening the Sandpapergate investigation.
The longtime bowling group, including Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, in 2021 rejected innuendo that everyone was in on the plot to use sandpaper to help make the ball “reverse” — or swing unconventionally through the air. Cummins and Starc have publicly confirmed their version of events again this week.
But in his autobiography, Khawaja said he was sitting beside Bancroft in the locker room when he heard of a plot to tamper with the ball, and urged caution.
Cummins, who was 13 tests into his international career in that Cape Town match, on Friday turned the spotlight back on Khawaja, who retired from international cricket in January after his 88th test match.
“I was genuinely shocked this week when I found out that Usman admitted that he told Cam to be careful when using sandpaper,” Cummins said, adding that Khawaja had been instrumental in helping the Australian squad turn around what he described as a sometimes ugly, win-at-all-costs culture.
“That’s not the Usman that I know. It’s not the Usman that I think has been part of a team that’s helped rebuild the Australian cricket culture over the last eight years,” he said. “And the one that would have stopped that from happening there and then.”
See AP’s full cricket coverage here
Australia's captain Pat Cummins, right, tosses a ball to Mitchell Starc, on day four of the third cricket test match between South Africa and Australia, in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Halden Krog)
Australian men's cricket team captain Pat Cummins speaks in Sydney, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, about the Sandpapergate cheating scandal. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Australia men’s cricket captain Pat Cummins speaks in Sydney, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, about the Sandpapergate cheating scandal. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Australian men's cricket team captain Pat Cummins speaks in Sydney, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, about the so-called Sandpapergate cheating scandal. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
