The KHL lost the “Kryshtof case” in the CAS.

KHL lost the “Krishtof case” in the CAS

I’m returning from my vacation with information that has been available for a week now. On May 7th, details of the case were published on the website of the Sports Arbitration Court. Krishtof went to play for Langnau in Switzerland. The following is a summary of the proceedings in CAS 2025/A/11278:

– December 20, 2024: KHL asked the Disciplinary Council of IHIF to initiate proceedings. No response was given. – January 9th, 2025, January 29th, and February 11th, 2025: The league reminded the parties three times about the request. There was no response. – February 25, 2025: KHL gave three days to respond in a final letter. Again, there was no response. – March 21, 2025: A lawsuit was filed in CAS. Official correspondence began between the parties. – September 2, 2025: The arbitration tribunal informed the parties that hearings were not necessary, and that the decision would be made based on the documents presented. – April 15, 2026: The full text of the decision was prepared. – May 7, 2026: The PDF file was published on the CAS website.

In summary, what the plaintiff wanted was that IHIF should ignore the requests from KHL. This constitutes a refusal to administer justice. The internal mechanisms of IHIF have been exhausted, and the path to CAS is open. The arbitration tribunal should impose sanctions on all parties who violated the contract and registered non-compliant teams (Krishtof, Langnau, Swiss federation, IHIF staff).

The alternative is to ask the Disciplinary Council of IHIF to initiate proceedings upon request.

In summary, what the defendants said is that KHL’s voluntary departure from the jurisdiction of IHIF since August 1, 2024 automatically removes the league from IHIF’s jurisdiction. There is no record of a refusal to administer justice, since KHL is not part of the federation’s system. There is no arbitration agreement between IHIF and KHL regarding jurisdiction in CAS. Therefore, the court has no right to consider this case.

The legal details of this process are quite complicated. You can read more about the various versions of IHIF’s guidelines, whether to use them or not, and about KHL’s statement that it respects all existing contracts.

**Decision:** The CAS panel determined that the court has no jurisdiction to handle this case.

**Conclusion:** KHL lost the lawsuit related to Krishtof’s escape in 2024.

How this decision will affect KHL’s transfer policy in 2026 remains to be seen. Let’s leave that to professional lawyers.

**P.S.** I should mention that CAS has also dealt with three other cases related to Russian hockey in recent times. All of these cases involved face-to-face hearings. – May 5, 2025: CAS 2024/A/10636: Russian Hockey Federation vs. IHIF – May 6, 2025: CAS 2024/A/10634: CSKA Hockey Club vs. IHIF – January 23, 2026: CAS 2025/A/11726: Igor Grigorenko vs. IHIF. The situation is still unclear.

There is no full text of the decisions from CAS for these cases yet. We’re waiting for that information.