PARIS – The 2016 IIHF Semi-Annual Congress has assigned three more tournament hosts including two as test event of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games and confirmed the tournaments of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship program. In addition, the Division III events in the men’s and U20 category have been realigned to have all eight teams in one tournament.

In 2018 the Olympic Winter Games will take place in PyeongChang, Korea, and in the upcoming months test events for all Olympic winter sports will take place in Korea to emulate the conditions during the Games for all aspects of organization and game operation.

Together with the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) the International Ice Hockey Federation has found an agreement to host two tournaments at the same time in Gangneung, the city where the coastal cluster of the Olympics is located.

The 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship Division II Group A and the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division II Group A will take place at the same time in Gangneung at the new Olympic venues that will be completed by November, the 10,000-seat Gangneung Hockey Centre and the 6,000-seat Kwangdong Hockey Centre at the Youngdong College. In total 12 teams – six men’s U18 teams and six women’s senior teams – will participate at these events.

The Congress also approved new cities named by the host nations since the last congress as well as new allocations.

Due to the fact that there were six teams in the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division III and two in the qualification tournament, exceptionally for the upcoming season the eight teams were put together in one Division III tournament with eight teams that will be organized with a preliminary round in two groups after discussing with the teams and organizer. The Bulgarian capital of Sofia remains as the tournament host. The same happened with the Division III tournament in the U20 category, which will now take place with eight teams in Dunedin, New Zealand. 

Another tournament not previously allocated to a country was assigned as well. The Icelandic capital of Reykjavik will host the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division II Group B.

Tournament updates:

2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division III
Sofia, Bulgaria, 10-16 April 2017
Group A: Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei
Group B: South Africa, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates, Georgia

2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division III
Dunedin, New Zealand, 16-22 January 2017
Group A: China, Israel, Iceland, Chinese Taipei
Group B: Bulgaria, New Zealand, Turkey, South Africa

2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship Division II Group A
Gangneung, Korea, 2-8 April 2017
Participants: Korea, Romania, Lithuania, Great Britain, Croatia, Estonia

2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division II Group A
Gangneung, Korea, 2-8 April 2017
Participants: Netherlands, Korea, Great Britain, DPR Korea, Slovenia, Australia

2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division II Group B
Reykjavik, Iceland, 27 February - 5 March 2017 
Participants: Spain, Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, Romania, Turkey

Click here for the full list of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship program.

Click here for the overview of the Olympic Qualification.

MARTIN MERK