The IIHF has issued multiple provisional suspensions to several ice hockey players from Belarus and Russia, for their participation in a match-fixing violation during a league game of the Belarus Extraliga Championship. The following players have been provisionally suspended:

• Pavel Boyarchuk, Forward, Belarus
• Stanislav Kuchkin, Forward, Russia
• Vyacheslav Lisichkin, Forward, Belarus
• Alexei Ivanov, Goaltender, Russia
• Nikita Ustinenko, Defender, Belarus
• Sergei Sheleg, Defenceman, Belarus
• Alexander Syrei, Defenceman, Belarus

At this time, in the cases, the following facts have been ascertained. On 12 November 2019, Mogilyov defeated Dynamo Molodechno 6-5 in a Belarus Extraliga Championship game.

On 13 November 2019, representatives of the relevant Belarus department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs began an investigation process into the result of the game. Based on this investigation, the Central Office of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus determined that each player took a decision to have an unlawful influence on the outcome of the Game, by ensuring defeat of the club in exchange for receiving illegal remuneration. During the investigation, each of the players also admitted that they had agreed to exert an unlawful influence on the outcome of the Game in exchange for illegal remuneration.

Subsequent to the Investigative Committee issuing its report, the Disciplinary Committee of the Belarusian Ice Hockey Association (BIHA) opened disciplinary proceedings against the players. After the Belarusian Ice Hockey Association Disciplinary Committee made a final decision regarding the sanctioning of the players for the incident, the BIHA referred the players’ cases to the IIHF in accordance with IIHF Bylaw 23.1.3.

Based on the currently available evidence as indicated above, in accordance with IIHF Code of Conduct Rule 3.6, the IIHF has decided to provisionally suspend the players from all ice hockey competitions or activities authorized and/or organized by the IIHF or any IIHF Member National Association as of 2 July 2020. These cases will now be referred to the IIHF Disciplinary Board for further review and sanctioning.

• This media release was published by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) on 3 July 2020. Click here for the original.