Dhe World Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has decided to hold the coming world championships exclusively in the Latvian capital Riga. The IIHF Council announced this decision on Tuesday. It was only in mid-January that Minsk was deprived of its role as the intended co-host of the title fights. This was preceded by a month-long hang-out in which IIHF President René Fasel (Switzerland) and General Secretary Horst Lichtner, who came from Germany, initially wanted to hold on to partial protests in Belarus.
Most recently, numerous international politicians, including Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, positioned themselves against the course of the IIHF. Only when sponsors, including the car brand Škoda, which belongs to the VW group, announced that they would withdraw because of the violations of human rights under ruler Aleksandr Lukashenka, Minsk should remain the venue, did the world association relent. The tournament starts on May 21st, the final is scheduled for June 6th. The German national team is also qualified for it.
Most recently, the IIHF had examined plans to set up a World Cup preliminary round group in Bratislava, Slovakia, but “the ongoing challenges due to the corona pandemic”, so it said in the announcement, were the decisive factors in “holding the World Cup in one city”.
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