Germany host of 2027 IIHF extravaganza

Image: DBE

The 2023 International Ice Hockey Federation (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.

‘INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION’ stated that this vote was, by far, the most awaited decision of the day (May 26^th). The IIHF delegates had to choose between two 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!

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zürich, Switzerland, and has 83 member-countries.

The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men’s ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was first officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics.

The 2024 IIHF World Championship will be hosted by Czechia from May 10^th-26^th, 2024. This decision was made at the semi-annual International Ice Hockey Federation congress. Officially, this was announced on September 12^th, 2020 by the IIHF, delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

Worlds Return to Germany

‘INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION’ further stated that with 102 votes in its favor, Germany will have the honor to host the 2027 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, 10 years exactly after the last IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, which the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) hosted together with France in 2017.

Füssen (Germany)-based the German Ice Hockey Federation, commonly abbreviated as DEB, is the governing federation of German ice hockey associations. It was established on June 16^th, 1963 in Krefeld. Until 1990, it served only the old Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin.

Exulted Dr. Peter Merten, DEB President, “This is a milestone for 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.”

Similar to an ice hockey game, Germany articulated its bid around three periods moderated by the former 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 Düsseldorf 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 Düsseldorf has a history of hosting the 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 and Ostrava (Czechia) – May 10^th-26^th, 2024;
• 2025: Stockholm (Sweden) and Herning (Denmark) – May 9^th-25^th, 2025; and
• 2026: Zürich and Fribourg (Switzerland), May 15^th-31^st, 2026.

 

2027: Germany, May 14^th-30^th, 2027

 

Regarding the lower-level tournaments, the allocations, voted and chosen by the IIHF Congress were:

• Bolzano, Italy (28.04.2024-04.05.2024) for Division I, Group A;
• Vilnius, Lithuania (27.04.2024-03.05.2024) for Division I, Group B;
• Belgrade, Serbia (21.04.2024 -27.04.2024) for Division II, Group A; and
• Sofia, Bulgaria (15.04.2024-21.04.2024) for Division II, Group B;
• Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (10.03.2024-16.03.2024) for Division III, Group A.

 
Division IIIB and IV will be decided at the next IIHF Semi-Annual Congress in early October.
 

Women’s Championship Program

As it has already been announced on April 16^th, 2023, Utica, New York (US) will host the 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Two venues will be used for the 31 games – the 5,700-capacity Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium and the 1,200-capacity Utica University Nexus Center. The tentative dates for this top-level tournament are April 4^th-14^th, 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 Shenzhen, China, between August 20^th-26^th, 2023.
 

For the Women’s category, the lower-level tournaments were allocated to:

• Riga, Latvia (31.03.2024-06.04.2024) for Division I, Group B;
• Spain ( 18.03.2024-24.03.2024) for Division II, Group A;
• Istanbul, Turkey (01.04.2024-07.04.2024) for Division II, Group B;
• Zagreb, Croatia (11.03.2024-17.03.2024) for Division III, Group A; and
• Kohtla-Järve, Estonia (24.03.2024-29.03.2024) for Division III, Group B.

 
Division I, Group A will be decided at the next IIHF Semi-Annual congress in early October.
 

Men’s Under-20 Championship Program

• In the men’s U20 category, the top-level 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship has already been assigned earlier to Gothenburg, Sweden;
• Budapest, Hungary (10.12.2023-16.12.2023) for Division I, Group A;
• Bled, Slovenia (11.12.2023-17.12.2023) for Division I, Group B;
• Dumfries, Great Britain (11.12.2023-17.12.2023) for Division II, Group A;
• Novi Sad, Serbia (14.01.2024-20.01.2024) for Division II, Group B; and
• Tnuvot, Israel (22.01.2024-29.01.2024) for Division III, Group A;
• Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (25.01.2024 -28.01.2024) for Division III, Group B.

 

Men’s Under-18 Championship Program

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.

• Tallinn, Estonia (14.04.2024-20.04.2024) for Division I, Group B;
• Sosnowiec, Poland (17.04.2024-23.04.2024) for Division II, Group A;
• Spain (06.04.2024-12.04.2024) for Division II, Group B;
• Istanbul, Turkey (04.03.2024-10.03.2024) for Division III, Group A; and
• Cape Town, South Africa (04.03.2024-07.03 2024) for Division III, Group B.

 
Division I, Group A will be decided at the next IIHF Semi-Annual Congress in early October.
 

Women’s Under-18 Championship Program

The top-level tournament for this category will be played in Switzerland between January 6^th-14^th, 2024. The Cities and the venues are still to be confirmed.

• Spain (08.01.2024-14.01.2024) for Division I, Group B;
• Heerenveen, Netherlands (15.01.2024-21.01.2024) for Division II, Group A; and
• Sofia, Bulgaria (08.01.2024-14.01.2024) for Division II, Group B.

 
The Division I, Group A and Division III Group A&B will be decided at the next IIHF Semi-Annual congress in early October.

The 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship has been allocated to Czechia and the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship has been allocated to Canada.

The 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship has been allocated to Finland.

In a further decision put forth during the IIHF Annual Congress, the delegates voted in favor of Italy to automatically qualify for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

The 2026 Winter Olympics, officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games and also known as Milano Cortina 2026, is an upcoming international multisport event scheduled to take place from February 6^th-22^nd, 2026. The event will have the Italian Cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo as the main Host Cities.

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