2021 IIHF World Championship

World Hockey Championship 2021 - 85th World Ice Hockey Championship, which will be held in 2021 and the fourth time in two countries at once - Belarus and Latvia (Minsk and Riga). This decision was made at the congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation, which was held in Cologne during the 2017 World Cup.

Two applications were submitted for the right to host the World Cup: one from Finland, the other - a joint application from Belarus and Latvia.

Latvia accepted the World Cup in 2006, and Belarus hosted the tournament in 2014. The possibility of holding the next world championship in Belarus not earlier than 2020 was predicted by the chairman of the Belarusian Ice Hockey Federation Yevgeny Vorsin back in 2014.

Both countries will host the World Cup for the second time. Despite the results of the vote, it was also decided that Finland will host the championship next year.

It is planned that the matches will be held in two cities: Minsk (“Minsk-Arena”) and Riga (“Arena Riga”).

Their participation in the championship was guaranteed by the national team of Belarus and the Latvian national team with the rights of the host countries, as well as the national teams and who took the first two places in the tournament of the first division of the World Cup 2020. Another 14 teams qualified for the tournament in the 2020 World Cup.