Kenya, Bahrain join International Ice Hockey Federation as newest associate members

The International Ice Hockey Federation – the governing body of most major international hockey tournaments – passed a motion at a meeting in Greece on Thursday to make Kenya and Bahrain associate members of the federation.

As associate members, neither team can play in proper IIHF World Championships but can play in smaller, limited events. They do not have voting rights at IIHF Congresses, but becoming IIHF members allows them to potentially seek appropriate funding and resources from their local governments due to the legitimacy of being part of the organization.

Both teams received a unanimous vote of 100 voters.

The IIHF has 85 member nations, including 24 associate members. The last to be included was Puerto Rico back in 2022, competing mainly in smaller, independent tournaments across North America. The last team to earn full IIHF membership was Iran in 2019.

For a federation to become a full member, it needs to meet the IIHF’s minimum participation standards. A country needs to have, at minimum, an artificial indoor rink that meets all the size and regulation standards. It must also have a minimum of 500 spectators. The team must have at least 60 registered players in a single category to enter a tournament (for example, they must have at least 60 men’s players to participate in the IIHF Men’s World Championship).

Kenya’s team is based in Nairobi, and the nation has been playing a handful of exhibition games dating back to 2019. The team is most well known for being part of an ad campaign where players flew to Canada and were able to meet Sidney Crosby.

Bahrain has played in some form since 2010, and has been a staple of the Arab Cup the past two years. Bahrain has four wins in tournament action, beating Algeria and Tunisia in 2023 and Iran twice in 2024.