Men’s Elite World Ice Hockey Championship hosts Helsinki, Riga

Article posted by Coliseum, June 17^th, 2026

The joint bid by Latvia and Finland was approved recently to host the 2030 Men’s Elite World Ice Hockey Championship. The decision in favor of the sole candidates was made at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) congress.

‘LSm’ stated that the championship games will be hosted by Helsinki (capital of Finland) and Riga (capital of Latvia) from May 17^th-June 2^nd, 2030. Each city will host one group of teams and two Quarterfinal games while the Semifinal and the Final matches will take place in Helsinki.

The 2030 Men’s Elite World Ice Hockey Championship (officially the ⁠2030 IIHF World Championship) is the premier international Men’s ice hockey tournament organized by the ⁠International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries.

Evaluation

‘LSm’ further stated that the evaluation of the joint bid took place in several stages with the IIHF Council analyzing the organizational plans and infrastructure. In the vote, the Finnish and Latvian bid received 98.23 percent support.

Riga previously hosted the World Championship at the elite national team level in 2006 and 2021 but together with the Finnish city of Tampere the tournament was hosted in 2023 when the Latvian national team won bronze medals reaching the podium for the first time in a world championship.

The 2027 World Championship will take place in the German cities of Düsseldorf and Mannheim. In 2028, the top national teams will play in the French cities of Paris and Lyon while the 2029 championship has been entrusted to the Slovakian cities of Bratislava and Košice.

The 2028 Women’s World Championship

Switzerland, the host of this year’s Men’s tournament, had a successful bid to host the 2028 Women’s World Championship. The host city will be announced later.

After the 2026 Congress the top division tournaments for 2028 have been allocated as follows:

2028 IIHF Women’s World Championship

Switzerland, host city TBD

2028 IIHF World Junior Championship

Tampere and Turku, Finland

2028 IIHF U18 Men’s World Championship

Landshut and Füssen, Germany

2028 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship

Canada, host city TBD

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