ZURICH — German official Franz Reindl has been elected president of the International Ice Hockey Federation by just three votes after incumbent Luc Tardif chose not to run.
Reindl beat Petr Bříza 60-57 in a runoff vote on the Spanish island of Tenerife between two former players who both won Olympic medals on the ice.
Reindl had been behind Bříza 48-36 in the first round but picked up crucial votes after Aivaz Omorkanov of Kyrgyzstan was eliminated.
Reindl was a forward on the West Germany team which beat the United States and Finland to the bronze medal in 1976, while Bříza was a goaltender when Czechoslovakia won bronze in 1992.
Reindl becomes IIHF president five years after he was runner-up to Tardif. He's worked closely with the NHL in the past and was president of Team Europe for the NHL-run World Cup of Hockey in 2016.
Tardif’s tenure was dominated by the NHL’s return to Olympic hockey for the Milan Cortina Games this year and the IIHF’s exclusion of Russian teams after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Tardif announced he wouldn't run again in March, saying it was time for a younger leader. At 71, Reindl is only two years younger than his French predecessor.
Elsewhere on the council, Canada is without representation. CEO and president of Hockey Canada, Katherine Henderson, didn't get enough votes to join the board.
Henderson was eliminated in the second of three rounds of voting. Hungary's Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer, Turkey's Merve Tunali and Poland's Marta Zawadzka won the council seats.
Canada will be represented regionally on the council by American Mike Trimboli, who was elected vice-president for the Americas and Oceania after running unopposed. He replaces former Hockey Canada president and CEO Bob Nicholson, who had held the role since 2012 but did not seek re-election. Former Hockey Canada president Murray Costello served as vice-president for five years before Nicholson took over.
While Canada will not have a member on council, the IIHF will have representation from non-traditional hockey nations, including Tunali, Andy Mills of New Zealand and Aivaz Omorkanov of Kyrgyzstan.
Canada had been represented on the IIHF Council since 1978, apart from a four-year gap from 1994-98, when American Walter Bush Jr. held the Americas vice-president position.
Full IIHF Council, 2026-2030
President: Franz Reindl (GER)
Senior Vice President: Petr Briza (CZE)
Regional Vice President--Americas and Oceania: Mike Trimboli (USA)
Regional Vice President--Asia: Susie Jo (KOR)
Regional Vice President--Europe & Africa: Igor Nemecek (SVK)
Remaining Council Members
Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer (HUN) and Merve Tunali (TUR), Heikki Hietanen (FIN) Aivaz Omorkanov (KGZ), Viesturs Koziols (LAT), Anders Larsson (SWE), Marta Zawadzka (POL), Sergey Goncharov (BLR), Stoian Batchvarov (BUL), and Andy Mills (NZL)
-With files from The Canadian Press
