The latest news about the World Championships in Ice Hockey

30-01-03
Three national member associations have announced that they will apply
to organize the 2008 IIHF World Championship: France, Germany and Switzerland.

30-01-03  
The IIHF has received applications from four national member associations to organize the 2007 IIHF World Championship. Apart from Canada, which already last December officially announced its aspiration to organize the world championship for the first time, the following countries have also announced that they will be in the 2007 race: Germany, Russia and Sweden.

Three national member associations have announced that they will apply to organize the 2008 IIHF World Championship: France, Germany and Switzerland. 2008 will mark the 100-year anniversary of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

16-09-02
The IIHF Championship Structure Committee held a meeting in Helsinki, finland on August 12. The main task for the meeting was to review the playing system of the IIHF World Championship.
The Committee (which is an advisory body to the IIHF council) discussed the following issues and gave its recommendations to each.
Any major changes to the statues, bylaws and regulations must be approved at the 2003 IIHF General Congress. Any changes will be in effect at the earliest for the 2005 IIHF World Championship in Austria.

# Number of teams
The Championship Structure Committee recommended that 16 teams is the appropriate number of participating teams in the IIHF World Championship and should not be changed. The Committee agreed that a 16 team championship showcases the very best that international hockey has to offer and also gives emerging hockey powers a chance to further develop their game. The steady decrease of lopsided scores clearly indicates increased parity within the top 16, which indicates that the format is suitable.

# Number of venues
The Committee recommended that the IIHF World Championship games must be organised in a maximum of two arenas. Only two venues, and short distances between them, will help the teams, media, sponsors and local organizers. Only two venues will result in less travel and reduced costs, and it will be easier to create a World Championship atmosphere.

# Playing format
Nine different playing formats were thoroughly discussed by the committee. After taking all the pros and cons into consideration, the Committee found that the current system should be kept, with minor change in the relegation round. The last place teams of the groups at each venue will play a best-of-two series to determine the relegated team. As before, two teams will be relegated.

# Far East Qualifier
The free spot (vacancy) for the Far East Qualifier in the IIHF World Championship has not brought the expected development in either the quality of hockey or marketing in the region. The Committee also states that the current playing format of the relegation round creates an awkward and unfair competition among the teams who play to avoid relegation. The Committee recommends that the 2004 IIHF World Championship will be the last to which a Far East team can come on free quota. If the Far East team is not placed 14th or better in 2004, it will be relegated.

# Number of players
The Committee recommended that the maximum number of players registered on the Official Game Sheet should be 18 skaters and 2 goalkeepers, as opposed to 20 skaters and 2 goalkeepers. The maximum number of registered players should stay at 23 (20 skaters plus 3 goalkeepers). The eight teams that advance to the final round may register an additional two players to form a maximal roster of 25 players.
The Committee noted that the current rule, which allows teams to add up to five players in the latter stages of the championship, has not been fully utilised in recent championships.

# Overtime regulations
The Committee recommends that all Sudden Victory Overtimes will be twenty minutes (as opposed to the current rule of a ten minute overtime in QF and SF) and that all overtimes will be played with 4-on-4 players.

# Draw of groups for upcoming World Championship
The Committee agreed that a draw to form the groups to the upcoming championship should provide additional exposure and promotion for the IIHF World Championship. The procedure will be part of a broadcast event for all. The draw will be conducted after the Quarterfinals when the necessary seeding numbers of the teams are known.
The draw will conducted in four rounds. In every round four teams will be allocated to the four groups A to D.
Round 1: teams ranked 1 - 4
Round 2: teams ranked 5 - 8
Round 3: teams ranked 9 - 12
Round 4: teams ranked 13 and 14, as well as the two promoted teams from World Championships division A.

02-09-02
After the intense flooding in the Czech republic this summer, the question has arisen whether they are fully prepared to organize the World Championships in 2004.

Obviously the watermasses have caused serious damage to the arena and questions have been asked whether the organisers will be able to fix this in time for the Tournament.

Sweden has shown interest in "taking over" the tournament in 2004, but information to Svea Svin from the International Hockeyfederation (IIHF) states that Sweden is not an interesting choice to organise the Championships. The reason for this is that the IIHF are very disappointed in how the IIHF World Championships in 2002 was (dis)organised.

Instead Germany and Switzerland have shown interest as being "stand-ins" for Czechia if they cannot fix the damage to the arena in Praha in time. Considering that Germany hosted the World Championships in 2001 and that Sweitzerland have been rejected by the IIHF for the last four years, Svea Svin bets 10 Euros that Switzerland will be the IIHF first hand choise.

Svea Svin have today no information about when the desicion will take place about who will be "Stand-in" for Czechia, but we will publish information as soon as we know.

20-05-02
Here are what the four groups will look like in Helsinki, Turku and Tampere:
Ranking from the 2002 World Championship is within brackets.

Group A (Helsinki)
Slovakia (1)
Germany (8)
Ukraine (9)
Far East Qualifier

Group B (Tampere)
Russia (2)
USA (7)
Switzerland (10)
Denmark (15)

Group C (Turku)
Sweden (3)
Canada (6)
Latvia (11)
Belarus (14)

Group D (Helsinki)
finland (4)
Czech Republic (5)
Austria (12)
Slovenia (13)

17-10-01
Japan qualified for the World Championships next year by play 0-0 against China at the same time that China won against South-Korea in the Far-east qualification. It's the fifth year in a row that Japan qualifies for Pool A Championships. Earlier years have Japan gotten the 14, 16, 16, 16:th position in Pool A.
The qualification games were played in Harbin, China.

06-10-01
The International Hockeyfederation have decided the following:

• The cities that are to host the games during the WC 3003 in finland are Helsinki, Tampere and Abo. This Championship will be the last one to be played atthree different sities. The following Championships will only be held in one or two cities.
• After the swap with finland to host the Championships in 2003, three countries have applied as alternative organisers for the WC in 2004.
  The countries that wants to host the Championships in that case are: Germany, Switzerland and Canada. Which country that will be accepted as stand-by organiser in 2004 will be made public in December 2001.

The meeting was held in Malmö, Sweden.

01-06-03
IIHF today announced that the Pool A Champonships are to be helt in Latvia. No desicion has been taken about where the games are to be held, but a wild guess is that Riga is one of the cities.

01-05-21
IIHF today decided to let Austria organize the 2005 Pool A World Championships in Ice Hockey. Games will take place in Vienna and Innsbruck.

01-05-12
In front of a partisan crowd of over 5 000 fans at the Hala Tivoli, the homeboys did what the spectators demanded – and a little more. Slovenia demolished Estonia 16-0 and beat the Britons on goal difference. Both Slovenia finished the tournament with an identical 5 4-1-0 record. The first tie-breaker – head-to-head games – could not be applied. On Wednesday the teams skated to a 3-3 tie.
Slovenia, the first of the former Yugoslav republics to declare independence, joined the IIHF World Championships C-pool in 1993, gained promotion to the B-pool in 1998 and made it to the elite group on the fourth effort.
Slovenia joins Poland for next years trip to Sweden. The Poles were promoted a couple of hours earlier by securing a win in the Division I World Championship in Grenoble, France.

01-05-12
For the moment it seems like the World Championships in 2003 not will be played in the Czech republic as previously decided. The reason is that the IIHF dom't consider it possible for the Czechs not will be able to complete the construction of their arenas in time for the championships in 2003. The Czech republic have though until the first of October this year to complete the arenas, something that seems impossible at this time. finland that has been asked have approved to organize the championships in 2003 because of this but nothing has yet been decided.

01-04-10
The tickets to the World Champiopnships in Sweden will be released during the new year 2001/2001

00-09-15
Host country Japan accomplished their goal of requalifying for the 2001 World Championship tournament to be held in Germany. Japan defeated the team from China 5 to 3 in a hard fought contest. This win, coupled with Japan's 8 to 0 defeat over South Korea two days earlier, gave them top spot with the maximum four points from this Far East Qualification tournament.

00-08-13
2001 IIHF World Championship Qualification to be played in Sapporo, Japan Japan is hosting the 2001 IIHF World Championship Far East Qualification tournament in Sapporo, the site of the 1972 Olympic Winter Games. The winner of the tournament qualifies to Germany, host of the 2001 IIHF World Championship. The tournament in Germany will be played in Nuremberg, Cologne and Hanover from April 28 till May 13. The winner of the Far East Qualification will be placed to the Group B, which plays its games in Nuremberg, with finland, Slovakia and Austria.

Game schedule in Sapporo
Monday September 4 18.30 Korea -Japan
Tuesday September 5, 18.30 China -Korea
Wednesday September 6, 18.30 Japan -China
All starting times in local time

00-06-22
The World Championships in Ice Hockey will be re-organized again before next season. First there will be an A-group with 16 teams, just like before, after that comes a Division I-serie with 12 teams and a Division II-serie with 12 teams. Those teams that don´t get a place in the division-II gets to qualify. This is how the championships will be organized:
A-group: Czeckia, Slovakia, finland, Canada, USA, Latvia, Sweden, Switserland, Norway, Belorussia,Russia, Italy, Ukraine, Germany and the wictor in the Asia-group, most likely Japan
Div I: France, Kazakhstan, Great Britain, Poland, Denmark, Estonia, Slovenia, The Netherlands, Hungary, Kina (if they don´t qualify to the A-group), Croatia and Lithuania.
Div II: South-Korea Sydkorea (if they don´t qualify to the A-group), Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, Jugoslavia, Israel, Belgum, Australia, South-Africa, Iceland, New Zeeland and Mexico.

00-05-14
The IIHF today announced the hosting countries for the World championships in Ice hockey for 2003 and 2004. 77 out of the 102 votes went to the Czech Republic, who announced their intention to stage the tournament in the cities of Prague (where a new arena will be built), Plzen and Ostrava in 2003. finland, who, along with Latvia, was also bidding to host the tournament, withdrew and presented a candidature for the 2004 edition. The candidature was accepted by the IIHF Congress after the withdrawal of Switzerland. The 2004 IIHF World Championship will be played in Helsinki, Espoo and Turku.

99-12-14
The final qualification game between Norway and Great Britain for the last opening of the 2000 IIHF World Championship Pool A to be played in St.Petersburg, Russia, ended with a marginal win for Norway against Great Britain. The both third placed teams from the qualification tournaments in Amiens, France and Sheffield, England had to go to the decisive game agreed by both teams to be played in a neutral zone in Eindhoven, Holland and the outcome was favourable for Norway, host of the 1999 IIHF World Championship.
Norway now joins defending IIHF World Champion Czech Republic, Canada and Japan in Group C at the 2000 IIHF World Championship in St.Petersburg scheduled from April 29 till May 14, 2000.

99-11-30
The final qualification game for the 2000 IIHF World Championship in St.Petersburg, Russia between Great Britain and Norway will be played on December 14, 1999 in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The winner of the game will qualify to Group C along defending IIHF World Champion Czech Republic, Canada and Japan. Great Britain finished third in the qualification tournament played in Sheffield, England in November and Norway simultaneously in Amiens, France.

99-11-17
The weekend tournaments in Sheffield, England and Amiens, France, declared four out of the remaining five opening spots for the 2000 IIHF World Championship in St.Petersburg, Russia. Qualified were France and Italy from Amiens and Latvia and Ukraine from Sheffield.
Latvia and Ukraine are qualified to St.Petersburg and now Great Britain and Norway shall play one play-off game to decide the remaining open spot in Pool A in St.Petersburg. The announcement of the date and the venue of the game will be made next week Monday, November 22.
Latvia and Ukraine will join group A in St.Petersburg along with Sweden and Belarus, Italy joins finland, Slovakia and Austria in group B and France joins Switzerland, USA and hosting Russia in group D. The winner of the game Great Britain - Norway joins then Czech Republic, Canada and Japan in group C.

99-10-30
The German Ice Hockey Federation today announced the three hosting cities of the 2001 IIHF World Championship in Germany. The cities are Hannover, Cologne and Nuremberg. All three arenas are new; Hannover will open its door for the players for the first time in the next season, Cologne was opened in 1998 and Nuremberg will be ready in the season 2000-2001. This is the first time in the history of the IIHF World Championship tournaments that all playing arenas represent the newest technology and the capacity of the arenas is bigger than in any previous IIHF Championship tournaments with the highest capacity in the Cologne Arena with 18.000 seats followed by Hannover with13.000 and Nuremberg 9000.

99-10-23
The first ten countries that has qualified for game in The World championships Pool A have been announced and they are listed below.

Sweden finland Czech rep. Switzerland Russia

Canada Slovakia Belorussia USA Austria

No decision about what countries that will play in what group has been made yet. This will be decided after all countries has qualified. This will occur for Group A in Amiens, France on the 11:th to the 14:th of November. The last countries to qualify are:

• Norway
• France
• Italy
• Denmark (Winner of Pool B championships)

Group B qualification games will be played in Great Britain and the countries that plays for qualification are:

• Latvia
• Ukraine
• Great Britain
• Kazakhstan

The winnners and the holders of the second position in these groups are qualified for play in Pool A championships next year in St. Petersburg. And the 16:th country to participate in the pool A championships are the winning country in the Far-east qualification group.

99-10-13
The 2001 IIIHF World Championship tournament in Germany will be played in three different arenas. That was the decision taken by the IIHF Semi-Annual Congress in Fort Lauderdale, United States, today. From the original 16 cities that were applying to host the championship, 5 have qualified for the final selection. The cities are Hannover, Dortmund, Cologne, Nuremberg and Munich. The final selection for the three hosting cities will be done by October 15 by the representatives from the IIHF, its commercial partner CWL AG and German Ice Hockey Federation DEB.

99-09-25
The 2001 IIIHF World Championship tournament in Germany will be played in three different arenas. That was the decision taken by the IIHF Semi-Annual Congress in Fort Lauderdale, United States, today. From the original 16 cities that were applying to host the championship, 5 have qualified for the final selection. The cities are Hannover, Dortmund, Cologne, Nuremberg and Munich. The final selection for the three hosting cities will be done by October 15 by the representatives from the IIHF, its commercial partner CWL AG and German Ice Hockey Federation DEB.

99-08-30
After ongoing discussions with the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia the IIHF received today the confirmation from the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia that St. Petersburg will be the only host city for the 2000 IIHF World Senior Championship Pool A scheduled from April 28 through May 14, 2000. The new Sport Palace in the city of Yaroslavl which was originally supposed to be the second venue to host games in the first round of the Championship, is still under construction. Due to financial reasons the new Sport Palace will not be completed in time prior to the 2000 IIHF World Senior Championship Pool A. The decision to hold all games in the city of St. Petersburg was taken at a meeting in Moscow on August 23, 1999 under the patronage of the Premier Minister Mr. Poutin concerning the progress of preparation for this Championship.

99-08-02
On Monday, August 2 there has been a newspaper article published in Czech Republic where an official from Russian government has been quoted saying that for several reasons the city of Yaroslavl is not able to host the 2000 IIHF World Championship tournament scheduled from April 28 till May 14, 2000. The International Ice Hockey Federation has contacted Mr. Alexander Steblin, President of Russian Ice Hockey Federation, who regrets the news and confirms that the original plan to host the championship in the cities of Yaroslavl and St.Petersburg is still in place. The Government of Russia will have its next meeting on Thursday, August 5 and participating to the meeting will be governors of St.Petersburg and Yaroslavl. The official statement from the meeting will be distributed to international media early Friday morning.

99-07-22
According to unconfirmed romours will there be no games played in Yaroslavl but all games will be played in St. Petersburg instead. This is mostly due to the fact that the russian organisers will not be able to finish the arena in Yarolslavl in time for the Championships. This is so far just an unconfirmed romour but it comes from a well-informed source in finland, but You have reason to come back here for further information soon regarding this matter.

99-07-06
Some countries have already now sent their applications to host the upcoming International IceHockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships. Officially they have to confirm their applications in September when the IIHF Semi-Annual Congress decides also the hosting fee, which will be new from year 2001 on. Meaning that even Germany and Sweden, who have got the games in 2001 and 2002 have to pay this fee which is not known yet. The allocation of 2003 and 2004 will take place in May 2000 in Russia at the World Championship Congress and 2005 will allocated a year later in Germany. Here is the list of countries that have applied to apply for the upcoming Championships.

• 2003: CZE, LAT, SWE, FIN, SUI
• 2004: SUI
• 2005: AUT

99-07-06
These counties playes their qualification games later this year.

• Group A, Pool A qualification, Great Briatin 11-14/11 1999
• Group B, Pool A qualification, France 11-14/11 1999
• Far East, Pool A qualification, Japan 9-12/9 1999

99-07-06
Pool B Championships in 2000 will take place in Poland 12.-21.04.
Pool C Championships in 2000 will take place in China (no date set yet)
Pool D Championships in 2000 will take place in Iceland 10.-16.04.

99-07-06
Applicants for Pool B Championships in 2001 is: Estonia and Slovenia

99-06-27
That the World Championships in Ice Hockey will take place in St. Petersburg cannot come as a surprise for You. The location for the game is in Central St. Petersburg and in Yaroslavl which is located just outside central St. Petersburg. The location for the next years are:

• 2001: Germany; no cities announced yet but candidates are Munich, Regensburg, Nuremburg, Garmish-Partenkirchen, Hannover, Dortmund, Oberhausen and Cologne.
• 2002: Sweden; main arena Gothenburg

The International IceHockey Federation will allocate next spring the championships for 2003 and 2004 to reach a four year span for the future organisers. Four years will be needed for the renovation old arenas or building new arenas, marketing plan, sponsorship contracts and promotion of the tournament. 2003 and 2004 candidates will be officially announced in September 1999.

99-06-15
Source: The swedish Ice Hockey association. "Sweden wil play their games in Gothenburg. Gothenburg is the main citiy for the World championships in Ice hockey in 2002 which was decided during the championships in Lillehammer this year. Gothenburg was chosen since the town could present the best conceps for the event. Other cities for the championship will be decided during the fall but for the moment is Jonkoping the main favourite.