Frenchman Luc Tardif, who was born and raised in Canada, defeated German Franz Reindl by 67 votes to 39 in the fourth ballot on Saturday at the semi-annual Congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Sergej Goncharov (Belarus), Henrik Bach Nielsen (Denmark) and Petr Briza (Czech Republic) were eliminated in the first three ballots.

The 68-year-old athlete, originally from Trois-Rivières, Quebec, has been president of the French Hockey Federation (FFH) since 2006.

“I only have my determination, my crazy passion for this sport, my sense of teamwork, my respect for people and my honesty to offer,” Tardif said shortly after the announcement of the vote result. “Believe me, I will do anything to live up to your expectations.”

Tardif replaces René Fasel, 71, who did not stand for re-election after 27 years in the post. The dentist and former Swiss referee will be remembered for helping NHL players at the Olympics for the first time in Nagano in 1998. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame on Friday.

However, he and the IIHF have also come under fire for long sticking to plans for Belarus to co-host this year’s World Championship, despite a fierce crackdown on protests following the contested re-election of the President Alexander Lukashenko in August 2020.

The IIHF only took away Belarus’ right to co-host the Worlds after three tournament sponsors, Skoda, Nivea and Liqui Moly, said they would cancel their participation if matches were played there.

One of Tardif’s first priorities will be overseeing hockey tournaments at next year’s Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. The men’s tournament will see the return of NHL players to the Olympics after the league refused to release its players for the final Winter Games in Pyeongchang in 2018.

For Franz Reindl, 66, the loss means that he will remain in his post as president of the German Ice Hockey Association (DEB) until next year, when he said he will not be would not represent.