Four ice hockey players who were acquitted of sexual assault last year should remain barred from representing Canada at international level because they broke Hockey Canada’s code of conduct, an independent appeals board has ruled.

The board recommended that four of the five acquitted players remain suspended from all Hockey Canada-sanctioned programmes.

The fifth player, Alex Formenton, was also deemed to have broken conduct rules, but is now being reinstated.

The former players for Canada’s under-20s junior hockey team were accused of sexual assault over an incident that took place in 2018. They were found not guilty in July 2025.

The players are Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote and Carter Hart, as well as Formenton.

The ruling does not change the fact that all five players are eligible to play for teams that compete in the National Hockey League (NHL), which operates separately from Hockey Canada.

All five were allowed by the NHL to sign contracts again for the league’s teams late last year. The NHL operates under a separate authority to Hockey Canada, and conducted its own investigation into the incident that was at the centre of the legal case.

While Forementon is eligible for immediate reinstatement by Hockey Canada, the others will have to wait for months or years before they can return to the ice at an international level.

Foote will be eligible on 10 November of this year, while Hart and Dube will be eligible on 10 November 2027 and 10 November 2028 respectively. McLeod will have to wait until 10 November 2030.

Officials did not say why the reinstatement dates differed for each player.

The players had been accused of assaulting the woman, known as EM, in a hotel room in 2018 in London, Ontario, where they had been attending a gala.

They were acquitted in July 2025 when Justice Maria Carroccia said she did not find EM’s evidence “credible or reliable”.

The court heard that the woman had met the players at a bar and later went back to the hotel room to have consensual sex with McLeod. Other players then entered the room and engaged in further sexual acts with her.

The central issue of the trial was whether EM, who was 20 at the time of the incident, had consented to every sexual act in the hotel room that night.

Lawyers for the players contended that EM asked the men to have sex with her and they believed she gave consent.

EM, however, testified that she was intoxicated and felt fearful of the men. While she had initially agreed to have sex with McLeod, she testified that she did not agree to what unfolded afterwards.

Despite the fact that the incident happened eight years ago, the case remains on the minds of many in Canada.

“This case started a national conversation about safe sport and the problematic culture in men’s hockey,” said Adam van Koeverden, Canada’s current secretary of sport, in a statement after the Wednesday’s ruling by the appeals board.

“It is the voices of women and survivors, and the courage and bravery it takes to come forward, that have led to changes we are seeing in toxic culture.”

Van Koeverden said there has been progress at Hockey Canada to “address long-standing systemic failures” and said that national sport organisations must be held accountable.