The climax in the selection and appointment of exclusive World Championship Ambassadors is set by an ice hockey star and it is no one less than the probably greatest player of all times. Wayne Gretzky gave his promise to Franz Reindl, General Secretary of the World Championship, who had the honour of playing against "The Great One" several times during his career.

"This is fantastic," Reindl said with delight and added: "With Erich Kühnhackl, Germany's ice hockey player of the century, Vladislav Tretiak, considered to be the greatest goalie of all times and now Wayne Gretzky, hockey couldn't be represented more prominent in our squad of ambassadors. This was our objective and emphasizes the significance of our World Championship also on international level."

Gretzky, 49, whose famous Number 99 has never been given out again in the NHL, has won almost everything a player could win during his career, except for the Olympics and IIHF World Championship. He is practically leading all statistics of importance in the NHL. Among others he scored 894 goals, delivered 1,963 assists and thus achieved 2,857 scoring points.

The games of the new Olympic champion Canada belong to the most requested at the venue of Mannheim, but currently tickets are still available for all Canada games under phone +49 621 18 19 0 333 oder at www.iihfworlds2010.com.