May 6, 1992 — Prague, Czechoslovakia

It is an often repeated saying that sports and politics should not be mixed. In practice nothing could be further away from reality. Sports and politics have been, are, and will forever be intertwined. Ice hockey and the IIHF were very much affected by the defining moments in modern history, the fall of the Berlin wall on November 9, 1989, and the final dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991.

Only five months after Mikhail Gorbachev declared the office of the President of the USSR as extinct and turned the power to Boris Yeltsin, the IIHF held its Annual Congress in Prague, Czechoslovakia. (Ironically, only seven months after that congress also the hosting country seized to exist). As the members of the IIHF highest legislative body convened in the congress room in Prague in the morning of May 6, 1992, the agenda had the following point 7: Admission of new member associations and expulsions.

Nine new countries, who earlier were part of other nations, applied for new membership; Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Slovenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Iceland, who of course was not involved in the political developments at the turn of the decade, applied simply as a new member.

There were 32 nations represented at the congress, carrying a total number of 73 votes, which meant that 37 votes were needed for simple majority. As the first congress day was nearing its end, finally point 7 came up on the agenda. There would be no surprises and no split voting. All the applicants were unanimously admitted and the status of observers from the nine applying countries turned in a couple of seconds into official membership. There was a rousing applause welcoming the new members to the hockey family. At the same time the Russian Ice Hockey Federation was installed as member, replacing the former Soviet Union.