Men's Ice Hockey IIHF World Championship 2021

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The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) will compensate Belarus for the removal of hosting the World Championship 2021. (well, I sincerely hope it is not build for some hidden obscure referees help at the Olympic quallification tournament to somehow put BLR to Beijing)...

 

This was said by Petr Bříza, the former czech great goalie and current member of the IIHF Council for sport.cz. According to him, the federation will also reimburse the substitute venue for all the costs of the championship.

 

The replacing host country is not yet known. Denmark and Bratislava are 2 of the 3 official possibilities, but the 3rd possibility is that they will play the whole championship in Riga, Latvia, which was the original co-host with Belarus. However, due to the pandemic, the championship will most likely be without spectators. This is one of the reasons why, according to Bříza, the IIHF will reimburse all costs for its organization: Therefore, the IIHF came to the conclusion that it had to pay the costs. IIHF Secretary General Horst Lichtner will now work very intensively on three realistic funding options. "

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International Hockey Federation (IIHF) President Rene Fasel hopes that Belarus will not boycott this year's world championship.

 

On Monday, the country were deprived of the right to organize the WCh officially due to participants' safety concerns in view of the current political and epidemiological situation there.

 

"I hope it doesn't happen. The Belarusian hockey federation really didn't want this. But when politics starts to play an increasingly important role, such things can happen and it's very bad for the sport," Fasel told TASS.

 

The IIHF President declared that he was not interested in deteriorating relations with the Belarusian hockey movement and hoped that the championship in the country in the near future would be: "I feel really bad. Belarus is a country with amazing hockey fans. It was very difficult for me to explain I had no choice. I promised them that as long as I was here, I would help them make the championship in the country sooner or later. "

 

 

 

ehm..reading between the lines, now I am really starting to be affraid for the Olympic qualification tournament...I literally can feel that "hidden" compensation for Belarus coming this August by pushing them to Beijing...

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envisaging to help Latvia with organizing the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championships

 

The Lithuanian government has offered neighbouring Latvia help to organize this year's World Hockey Championships (May 21-June 6). If the plan to co-organize the championship with Denmark or Slovakia will fail, a couple matches from one of the preliminary groups could then take place in Lithuania. The Lithuanian website Delfi emphasized that this is so far only a proposal submitted by government officials to the Latvian side after Belarus lost its part of the World Champs.

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On 20/01/2021 at 11:10, hckosice said:

envisaging to help Latvia with organizing the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championships

 

The Lithuanian government has offered neighbouring Latvia help to organize this year's World Hockey Championships (May 21-June 6). If the plan to co-organize the championship with Denmark or Slovakia will fail, a couple matches from one of the preliminary groups could then take place in Lithuania. The Lithuanian website Delfi emphasized that this is so far only a proposal submitted by government officials to the Latvian side after Belarus lost its part of the World Champs.

 

The answer arrived already the next day..

 

President of the International Hockey Federation (IIHF), René Fasel, said that he would not consider Lithuania's offer to host the 2021 World Champs together with Latvia. Look how suddenly the guy can be quick in answering and saying No !

 

He also announced that the IIHF Council would decide on the substitute venue for the championship on January 26 or 27.

 

 

After talking to Fasel via videochat, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said that the country has everything needed to hold a couple of the World Championships 2021 matches.

 

On January 18, The IIHF Council stripped Belarus from co-hosting the tournament officially "due to security reasons". Which opened also a problem, since Latvia has only one arena with the required criterias for organizing the World Championships. Lithuania has promptly reacted and sent official letters to Latvia and the IIHF assuring them that it is ready to help their neighbours and if necessary hold some of the matches.

 

"We have the infrastructure needed for a tournament of this level. Here in Lithuania and in our neighbouring country Latvia, the organization of the championship is more convenient considering also the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. We have relevant experience of organizing successful events in this period, "said Simonyte according to TASS agency.

 

Fasel confirmed the interview, but declined the offer: "I had a video conference with the prime minister. First of all, I am very grateful to the Lithuanian Government for its willingness to help us. But we have already negotiated with Bratislava, Denmark and Riga. Denmark and Slovakia have good experience with the organization of the tournament in 2018 and 2019. I very much appreciate the offer of Lithuania and the willingness to help us, but too many candidates for the tournament do not make sense in this case." 

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Right now, the Council of the International Hockey Federation (IIHF) is meeting and deciding where the 2021 World Hockey Championships will take place.

 

 

There 3 officially known options

 

A- The whole tournament being played in Riga ( ) 

The advantage: The whole tournament in 1 country, in 1 City, possibility to have all participants in 1 big "bubble"

the disadvantage: There is only one suitable venue meeting the IIHF criteria for this event (Riga Arena) if the second preliminary round group have to be played there as well, the schedule would need to be quite extended. 

 

B- The second Preliminary Group being played in Herning ( ) 

The advantage: The place has experience of hosting such tournament in 2018.

the disadvantage: The rink is not really used for ice hockey in late May/early June, The accommodation capacities are located further from the hall, which would mean the creation of several "bubbles".

 

C- The second Preliminary Group being played in Bratislava ( ) 

The advantage: The place has experience of hosting such tournament in 2011 and the last played IIHF WCh in 2019. The Hotel is part of the Ice Hockey Arena which consist also of a training rink, so a "Bubble" is really easy to be formed in the Ondrej Nepela Ice Stadium area.

the disadvantage: The accomodations capacity is however for limited amount of guests, some other staff like IIHF officials, special guests or journalists will have to be accomotaded somewhere else in the city.

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59 minutes ago, hckosice said:

Right now, the Council of the International Hockey Federation (IIHF) is meeting and deciding where the 2021 World Hockey Championships will take place.

 

 

There 3 officially known options

 

B- The second Preliminary Group being played in Herning ( ) 

The advantage: The place has experience of hosting such tournament in 2018.

the disadvantage: The rink is not really used for ice hockey in late May/early June, The accommodation capacities are located further from the hall, which would mean the creation of several "bubbles".

Would also put the Handball Europeans in the pros. Herning has just hosted a major tournament showing how they're capable of creating a working bubble.

Don't think Herning will be selected, but they've shown how they're capable.

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2 minutes ago, Agger said:

Would also put the Handball Europeans in the pros. Herning has just hosted a major tournament showing how they're capable of creating a working bubble.

Don't think Herning will be selected, but they've shown how they're capable.

Sure this is another advantage. + the support of your governement is another major advantage.

 

I definitely would not eliminate Herning from the competition too early.

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We have an unexpected Twist !

 

Apparently IIHF is considering to take away the tournament also from Latvia...

 

 

 

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8 minutes ago, hckosice said:

Apparently IIHF is considering to take away the tournament also from Latvia...

Yeah, Fasel has floated that for a while now. I think he’s mad they refused to work with Belarus on hosting.

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The final decision should be made next Tuesday or Wednesday

 

 

 

From our medias...

 

The Council of the International Hockey Federation (IIHF) was supposed to decide on the fate of the 2021 World Championship on Monday or at last on Tuesday, but we will not find out the final response about the host  of the senior championship until next week, IIHF President René Fasel revealed.

 

Originally, the tournament was planed to take place in Riga, Latvia, and Minsk, Belarus, but the IIHF withdrew the championship from the latter country due to political unrest, the unstable and dangerous situation in the country.

 

The IIHF has announced three options to consider. The whole World Championships only in Riga, or only one Preliminary Round group there (+ the Knockout round) and the other group to be played in Bratislava, Slovakia or Herning, Denmark.

 

However, IIHF President René Fasel revealed that they would prefer a 4th option and it is to hold the entire championship in one place, which is why the final decision is postponed.

 

"We need more time to understand all the details and technical issues, we need to get more information. Given the coronavirus situation, it is better for us to host the World Cup in one country than in two. We will decide next week on Tuesday or Wednesday," Fasel told TASS agency.

 

Paradoxically, in this scenario, the original host city of Riga has the least chance. "We are communicating with Bratislava and Herning whether they will be able to organize the whole championship with 16 teams. In Latvia it would not be so easy, because we would have to solve the problem with the arena there, we would have to build a new temporary one," Fasel revealed that has only one suitable arena. However, he added that all three cities are still well in the game, as well as the previous options with tournament played in two countries.

 

"We are still negotiating with all three parties. However, we do not rule out that the championships will take place in two states. However, because of the corona, it is not easy to move between countries, which is another important issue we need to address. We need to evaluate all details, analyze all options and do for hockey the best decision, "added the head of the IIHF for TASS.

 

The Latvian government has already announced that it is interested in organizing the entire tournament, but only one suitable arena speaks against them, they would have to build the other temporarily, with which the IIHF should help financially. The hockey federation will probably take over all the financial costs associated with the championship.

 

According to the Latvian website sportacentrs.com, René Fasel is mostly inclined to the possibility that the entire tournament will take place in Bratislava. The capital of Slovakia has the biggest advantage in terms of financial costs compared to Denmark. Organizing a championship in Slovakia would cost the IIHF less than in Denmark. However without citing any source in the article.