Kenya Ice Hockey team shocked after being accepted into the IIHF

A vote on new membership was one of the topics discussed by the International Ice Hockey Federation Congress during its meeting in Greece on Thursday. The congress was there to discuss a number of topics related to the 2024-25 season.

The nations up for vote were Kenya and Bahrain, according to the IIHF. By a vote of 105 to 0, both countries were admitted as associate members of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Kenya Ice Hockey set up a camera to record their reaction while the votes were being counted, and to put it mildly, it was quite wholesome for a country that only made its debut in 2019 and whose rink was only constructed less than 20 years ago. They put a lot of effort into achieving this goal before 2019, so it's wonderful to see the results with their IIHF membership.

Kenya has been participating in a few exhibition matches since 2019, and its team is headquartered in Nairobi. The squad gained notoriety for participating in an advertisement campaign in which players were able to meet Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon after traveling to Canada.

Ever since the Ice Dogs teamed up with Crosby and MacKinnon, hockey has become more popular in Kenya. Since the Ice Dogs made their most recent announcement, foreign teams have started traveling to the nation to play them, and this trend is probably going to continue.

It's wonderful to witness hockey's expansion and internationalization. With the addition of Kenya and Bahrain, the International Ice Hockey Federation now has 84 members overall. Of those, five are located in Africa: Algeria, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, and Tunisia. Bahrain, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Turkiye, and the United Arab Emirates are the other eight Middle Eastern nations that have joined the IIHF. Bahrain is now the ninth member of this group.

Kenya and Bahrain are not permitted to compete at the IIHF World Championships since they do not have Olympic-sized ice rinks in their respective nations; however, beginning in 2025, they may be able to compete at the IIHF Development Cup.

Even though it might take some time, it would be wonderful to see the IIHF in a position where these associate member countries have greatly developed and a real World Cup could be held, much like FIFA has done for almost a century.