René Fasel has promised that Russia will not be stripped of the U18 World Championship in 2018, despite the publication of the McLaren Report ©World Hockey Forum

Russia will not be stripped of the Under-18 World Championship in 2018, despite the McLaren Report, International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) President René Fasel has promised. 

Sochi has already had next year's International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Championships taken away following the publication of the McLaren Report.

The decision by the International Biathlon Union to award Tyumen the 2021 World Championships is also under review.

But Fasel, who is from Switzerland and is one of Russia's closest allies, has revealed the IIHF are not considering any such action.

"They will go to Chelyabinsk with the U18," Fasel, currently visiting Moscow to attend the World Hockey Fourm, told Russia's official news agency TASS. 

"Sport is here to bring people together and not to divide them. 

"So I will do everything possible to use sport to bring people together."

The IIHF U18 World Championship has been held annually since 1999 for national teams of players of under the age of 18 and the 2018 event is scheduled to be held in the cities of Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk in Russia’s Urals.

It will be the fourth time Russia has hosted the event having previously staged it in 2003, 2008 and 2013.

Russia is due to the host the U18 World Championship for the fourth time in 2018, having last staged it in 2013 ©Getty Images
Russia is due to the host the U18 World Championship for the fourth time in 2018, having last staged it in 2013 ©Getty Images

Fasel's refusal to counter moving the event would seem to be against a request from the International Olympic Committee's ruling Executive Board for "all International Olympic Winter Sports Federations to freeze their preparations for major events in Russia, such as World Championships, World Cups or other major international competitions under their responsibility, and to actively look for alternative organisers".

Ice hockey was among the sports singled out in the McLaren Report after it revealed that at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi two Russian female players had male urine samples when they submitted for drugs tests. 

Fasel compared the situation to the 2014 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, when there was pressure to remove the action from Belarus because of the country's poor human rights record. 

"The same question was with Belarus and everybody wanted to boycott," said Fasel. 

"We went to Belarus and we had a fantastic experience. 

"We will stick to that."

The 2017 U18 World Championship is due to be held in Slovakia.