Nine men want to run the IIHF, and Bříza should get it Friday

Friday in Tenerife, international hockey picks its next boss. Nine men are running, two have a real shot, and the smart money and the smart choice are the same guy: Petr Bříza.

Luc Tardif, 73, isn't seeking another term as IIHF president. The vote happens at the Semi-Annual Congress in Spain, where member nations will also fill a 15-seat council for the next four years.

The two names that matter

Bříza is the insider. He's 61, a former goaltender in the Czech Hall of Fame, and he's spent the last five years as the IIHF's senior vice-president and treasurer. His federation just ran the 2024 men's Worlds and the 2025 women's Worlds, and both went well.

Franz Reindl is the other front-runner. He's 71, an Olympic bronze medalist from 1976, and he ran the German federation for eight years. He chairs the IIHF's event and athletes committees now.

Both ran in 2021. That vote took four rounds, and Tardif beat Reindl 67-39 in the last one. Expect another long day.

The field

The other seven are Henrik Bach Nielsen of Denmark, Sergej Gontcharov, Frank Gonzalez of Spain, Zakaria Khechuashvili of Georgia, Jaan Mölder of Estonia, Aivaz Omorkanov of Kyrgyzstan and Matjaž Rakovec of Slovenia.

The part that should bother people

Not one woman is on the ballot for president or senior vice-president. Only six women are in the whole election, three for regional vice-president and three for council seats. The rules guarantee at least three women on the council, which is the floor, not a plan.

That's a strange look for a federation whose fastest-growing product is the women's game. The PWHL just went to 12 teams. The people running the sport should look a little more like the people growing it.

What's on the new president's desk

Russia has been out of IIHF competition since February 2022, and that file doesn't go away because the name on the door changes. Neither does the jersey fight with Hockey Canada, which lost round one this week. Add the next Olympic cycle and a calendar that already fights with every pro league, and it's not a ceremonial job.

Ferda take

Bříza wins, probably in the third or fourth round, because the people voting know him and trust the numbers he's kept. That's the right call for a federation that needs steady hands more than a new vision.

But if the new council doesn't put a woman somewhere near the top within this term, the IIHF will have spent four more years telling the women's game it's important without letting it in the room.