Riga, Minsk to make joint bid for hosting 2021 World Ice-Hockey Championship

MINSK - The Latvian capital Riga and the capital of Belarus Minsk will make a joint bid for hosting the 2021 World Ice-Hockey Championship.

The International Ice-Hockey Federation will make the decision on the 2021 World Ice-Hockey Championship during its annual congress in May.

Finland is also bidding to host the World Championships in 2021.

Riga previously hosted the world championship in 2006, while Minsk held the championship recently - in 2014. Meanwhile, Finland co-hosted the Ice Hockey World Championships together with Sweden in 2012 and 2013.

It is planned that one of the two groups will be played in Riga, and the other in Minsk. The final, bronze medal match, as well as semifinals will be played in Minsk, while Riga will host two out of the four quarterfinal matches.

The matches in Riga would be played at Arena Riga, while the matches in Minsk would be played at Minsk Arena.

The Riga City Council public relations department reported that Latvian Ice-Hockey Federation’s president Aigars Kalvitis, and seretary general Viesturs Kolziols, as well as Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs have gone to Minsk to make a joint bid for hosting the World Ice-Hockey World Championship in both cities.

Riga also applied for hosting the world championship also in 2014, 2017 (together with Copenhagen) and 2018.

This year’s world championship will also be held in two cities and countries – Cologne in Germany and Paris in France.

The 2018 tournament will be played in Denmark, the 2019 tournament will be played in Slovakia, and the 2020 tournament will be played in Switzerland.

Riga hosted the World Ice-Hockey Championship in 2006, and the Latvian team finished in tenth in the competition.