See excerpt from IIHF below.
Honest question: does this apply to dual-citizens, who have always been dual-citizens? This eligibility brief makes reference to changing or acquiring a new citizenship, which is not necessarily the case for an existing dual-national.
Acquiring a new national eligibility (The ‘two-year’ case)
When a player has changed his citizenship or has acquired another citizenship and wants to participate for the first time in an IIHF competition representing the new country he/she must:
- Prove that he has participated for at least two consecutive hockey seasons and 16 consecutive months (480 days) in the national competitions of his new country after his 10th birthday during which period he has neither transferred to another country nor played ice hockey within any other country. Female players need to have participated on a consistent basis for at least one hockey season and have been member of the new national association for at least 8 consecutive months (240 days) during that period.
- Have an international transfer card (ITC) that shows the transfer to the national association of his new country and which was approved and dated at least 16 months (480 days) before the start of the IIHF competition in which he wishes to participate.
- For female players the period is 8 months (240 days) instead of 16 months.
EDIT: Done some further reading on previous discussions regarding this topic and seemingly this applies to existing dual nationals as well. Certainly a bizarre ruling, as if you read between the lines, it seems to treat place of birth secondarily to "place of development". I don't like applauding FIFA, but I personally prefer their eligibility system.
Seriously though, there are IIHF criteria that are stating that in case of dual citizenship, you need to play 16 months in the country to be eligible and as far as I'm aware Runtso didn't play in Belarus.
