The 2023 IIHF Annual Congress has voted to assign the remaining tournaments of the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship program for the upcoming season, and voted to choose the host of the 2027 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
This vote was, by far, the most awaited decision of the day. The IIHF delegates had to choose between 2 excellent bids : one from Germany and the other from Kazakhstan, but only one winner in the end. After the very convincing presentations from both countries, all the delegates casted their secret ballots, and the winner is … GERMANY !
Worlds return to Germany.
With 102 votes in its favor, Germany will have the honour to host the 2027 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, 10 years exactly after the last IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, which the DEB hosted together with France in 2017.
“This is a milestone for the DEB! We are beyond happy about the trust and the choice of the IIHF delegates. I would like to thank all those involved for their work over the past months, especially our IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship project team. The carefully jointly developed concept has been fully convincing. We are looking forward to hosting this major international event in the heart of Europe in May 2027,”stated DEB President Dr. Peter Merten.
Similar to an ice hockey game, Germany articulated its bid around three periods moderated by Ex-National Team player Christoph Ullmann, where they presented videos to showcase the beautiful cities and the wonderful arenas where the games will be played.
The PSD Bank Dome in Dusseldorf with a capacity of 13,284 and the SAP Arena in Mannheim with a capacity for 13,200 fans have been chosen as the official venues. The city of Dusseldorf has a history of hosting IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships going back to 1955 as well as stints in 1975 and 1983. Mannheim last played host in 2010. So, Germany will once again host one of the biggest annual winter sports events in the world.
The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships of the upcoming years:
2024: Prague & Ostrava (Czechia), 10-26 May 2024
2025: Stockholm (Sweden) & Herning (Denmark), 9-25 May 2025
2026: Zurich & Fribourg (Switzerland), 15-31 May 2026
2027: Germany, 14-30 May 2027
Regarding the lower-level tournaments, the allocations, voted and chosen by the IIHF congress were :
Italy for Division I, Group A
Vilnius, Lithuania for Division I, Group B
Serbia for Division II, Group A
Bulgaria for Division II, Group B
Kyrgyzstan for Division III, Group A
Division IIIB and IV will be decided at the next IIHF semi-annual Congress in early October.
Women’s World Championship
As it has already been announced on 16 April 2023, Utica, N.Y., will host the 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Two venues will be used for the 31 games—the Adirondack Bank Center and Utica University Nexus Center. The tentative dates for this top-level tournament are 4-14 April 2024.
The 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division I, Group A is yet to be played. Denmark, Norway, Slovakia, Austria, China, and Netherlands will face-off in in Shenzhen, China between the 20 and 26 August 2023.
Great Britain will play in Div 1B which will be held in Riga, Latvia, from the 30 March – 6 April 2024
Latvia for Division I, Group B
Spain for Division II, Group A
Istanbul, Türkiye for Division II, Group B
Croatia for Division III, Group A
Kohtia Jarve, Estonia for Division III, Group B
Division I, Group A will be decided at the next IIHF semi-annual congress in early October.
IIHF World Junior Championship
In the men’s U20 category, the top-level 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship has already been assigned earlier to Gothenburg, Sweden.
Great Britian will his Div IIA in Dumfries between the 11-17 December 2023.
Budapest, Hungary for Division I, Group A
Slovenia for Division I, Group B
Great Britain for Division II, Group A
Serbia for Division II, Group B
Israel for Division III, Group A
Bosnia-Herzegovina for Division III, Group B
IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Men’s World Championship
After co-hosting the top men’s senior level tournament, Finland will next welcome the younger generation of ice hockey players in 2024. As it was announced earlier this month, Finland will host the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship. The teams will play in the cities of Espoo and Vantaa.
Great Britain will take part in the Div IIA Tournament which will be held in Sosnowiec in Poland from the 17th-23rd April 2024
Estonia for Division I, Group B
Poland for Division II, Group A
Spain for Division II, Group B
Istanbul, Türkiye for Division III, Group A
Cape Town, South Africa for Division III, Group B
Division I, Group A will be decided at the next IIHF Semi-Annual Congress in early October.
IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship
The top-level tournament for this category will be played in Switzerland between the 6 and the 14 January 2024. The cities and the venues still await to be confirmed.
Great Britain will take part in the Div IIA tournament, which will be in Hereenveen in Holland from the 15-21 January 2024.
Spain for Division I, Group B
Netherlands for Division II, Group A
Sofia, Bulgaria for Division II, Group B
for Division III, Group A
for Division III, Group B
Division I, Group A and Division III Group A&B will be decided at the next IIHF semi-annual congress in early October.