IIHF HAS FOUND RUSSIA'S HOSTING REPLACEMENT FOR 2023 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Back in late-April, the International Ice Hockey Federation announced that they were removing Russia from hosting duties for the 2023 World Championship due to their invasion of Ukraine.

With the 2023 tournament less than a year away, there has been little talk of who may be the host. Following their promotion from the Division 1A tournament earlier this month, Hungary and Slovenia jointly announced that they would be bidding to host the tournament.

It appears that the IIHF will be returning to Finland and Latvia for next year's event. On Tuesday, the IIHF announced that the bid from Hungary and Slovenia has been withdrawn, leaving Tampere (Finland) and Riga (Latvia) as the only remaining bid.

The IIHF council will meet on Friday to confirm the host for the 2023 World Championship and unless any new countries put in a bid, it will be Riga/Tampere.

Additionally, the IIHF confirmed that Ostrava and Prague (Czechia) will host the 2024 World Championship, Stockholm (Sweden) and Herning (Denmark) will host the 2025 World Championship. As for the 2026 World Championship, Kazakhstan withdrew their bid, leaving Switzerland as the lone bidder. They will likely be confirmed as host on Friday.

Tampere🇫🇮 & Riga🇱🇻 have applied to co-host the 2023 #IIHFWorlds.

Hungary and Slovenia have withdrawn their bid, and Switzerland🇨🇭 is the only bid for 2026.

More: https://t.co/0GpcmZC1Se@leijonat @lhf_lv pic.twitter.com/hCutrofhhL— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 24, 2022