Budapest to host Ice Hockey World Championship in 2018

The Hungarian tender has won the right to host the World Championship Division I/A in 2018 on the congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), reports mno.hu. The programme will take place in László Papp Budapest Sports Arena, as can be read on the website of the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation.

In addition to Hungary, Poland has also competed for this right, as it hosted the event in both 2015 and 2016. Poland withdrew before the decision, thus Hungary remained the one and only candidate. We hosted the World Championship in 2013 the last time, when the Hungarian team won the bronze medal and the teams of Kazakhstan and Italy competed for the gold medal, according to the federation’s official website.

“We are very happy that we won the right of the organization, we can host the World Championship of adults after five years again. The sport has improved a lot in these five years, a new generation has begun to play, and it will be the task of this new generation to do their best in this very difficult field. We hope all of our matches will attract a number of spectators, and the world’s best group of fans will support the team once again. The Federation will do everything possible for the comfort of the teams and the fans, and we hope that we can be the best host of the competing nations again” – said Gergely Egri, Sport Director visiting the congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

The Hungarian Federation competed with this video:

The team captain’s comment on the decision was: “I was glad to hear that we had won the right to organize the event, and we can compete on our home ground, again. It is always a pleasure to play in the Arena, full of fans, and there has not been a World Championship here for a long time now. There is still a lot of time until the event, and it does not make sense to consider the chances, but I hope there will be many spectators and that we will be able to do our best and make our fans proud.”

In the struggle for entering the Elite Division Hungary will compete against the recently promoted Great-Britain, Poland and Kazakhstan, while also against Italy and Slovenia that relegated from Top Division.

It has also been decided on the congress of IIHF that Minsk and Riga will host the matches of Group A in 2021. The Belarusian-Latvian couple defeated Finland, that competed with its cities Helsinki and Tampere, reported Jégkorongblog. Latvians hosted Group A last time in 2006, while Belarussians could organize the event in 2014.

World Championship:

2018: Denmark (Copenhagen, Herning)
2019: Slovakia (Bratislava, Košice)
2020: Switzerland (Zürich, Lausanne)
2021: Belarussia (Minsk) and Latvia (Riga)

Featured image: Magyar Jégkorong

Ce: bm

Source: mno.hu