The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has received bids from Germany, Kazakhstan and Norway to host its men’s 2027 World Championship.
‘inside the games’ stated that Germany is a seasoned World Championship host having held it eight times – three of which were in West Germany when the country was divided – and most recently in 2017 in Cologne, alongside the French capital Paris.
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey and in-line hockey. It is based in Zürich, Switzerland, and has 82 member-countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey tournaments.
‘inside the games’ further stated that Norway is seeking a return to hosting a top-tier IIHF World Championship for the first time since the 1999 edition in Lillehammer, Oslo and Hamar.
Its capital Oslo had previously staged the tournament in 1958.
The third bidding nation of Kazakhstan has never previously held a top-level IIHF World Championship.
Host Cities are yet to be decided for Germany’s proposal, with a national bidding process to be held.
Norway hopes to turn the 15,000-capacity Telenor Arena in Bærum into a 14,000-seat ice hockey venue for the World Championship, with the 8,000-capacity Trondheim Spektrum in Trondheim to be used as well.
Kazakhstan’s proposal includes the 11,400-capacity Barys Arena in Astana and the Almaty Arena in Almaty, which holds 12,500 spectators.
Norway has twice held the Winter Olympics, in Oslo in 1952 and Lillehammer in 1994, while Garmisch-Partenkirchen staged the only edition of the Winter Games held in Germany in 1936.
Almaty in Kazakhstan narrowly lost out to Beijing in a bidding race for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, and held the Asian Winter Games in 2011.
A bid presentation from each applicant at the IIHF headquarters in Zürich and a site visit are the next steps before hosting rights are to be awarded at next year’s IIHF Congress to be held in the Finnish City of Tampere.
Tampere (Finland) is due to co-host next year’s World Championship with Latvia’s capital Riga, followed by the 2024 edition in the Czech Cities of Prague and Ostrava.
Stockholm in Sweden and Herning in Denmark have been awarded hosting rights for 2025, followed by Zürich and Fribourg in Switzerland for 2026.
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