MONTREAL – The International Ice Hockey Federation welcomed its 66th member as Moldova joined the ice hockey family on the opening day of the IIHF Annual Congress. Moldova was granted Associate Member status by the Congress.
Various World Championships for the 2008-09 season were also allocated to the host nation. The complete list will be released at the conclusion of the congress, but some of the higher-level events allocated today include:
2009 IIHF Division I, Group A: Lithuania 2009 IIHF Division I, Group B: Poland 2009 IIHF Womens, Division I: Austria 2009 IIHF U20 Division I, Group A: Switzerland 2009 IIHF U20 Division I, Group B: Denmark 2009 IIHF U18 Division I, Group A: Belarus 2009 IIHF U18 Division I, Group B: Italy
The top level events were already allocated before the congress for the 2009 events. The 2009 World Championship will be played in Switzerland, while the U20's will be in Canada. The 2009 U18 World Championship will be held in the United States, while World Women's will be played in Finland.
In other news, Armenia was suspended from IIHF competitions for one year and put on a three-year probation after entering numerous ineligible players at this year’s U20 and men’s World Championship events. Armenia may not play in any of the 2008-09 season IIHF events. |