IIHF decides to move 2021 World Championship from Belarus

The 2021 IIHF World Championship will not take place in Belarus. A new location for the championship will be determined later. The Council of the International Ice Hockey Federation made the relevant decision on 18 January

The press release reads: “Due to safety and security issues that are beyond the IIHF's control, the IIHF Council confirmed today that the decision to move the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship from Minsk, Belarus is unavoidable.”

The IIHF Council will consider the status of Latvia as a co-host and will also evaluate the possibility of moving to a single-venue format to facilitate COVID-19 safety regulations and team travel.

According to Vladislav Tretyak, President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, as reported by TASS, "The IIHF is considering three options for: only Latvia, Latvia + Slovakia, Denmark + Latvia,"

“It is a very regrettable thing to have to remove the Minsk/Riga co-hosting bid,” said IIHF President René Fasel. “During this process, we had tried to promote that the World Championship could be used as a tool for reconciliation to help calm the socio-political issues happening in the Belarus and find a positive way forward. And while the Council feels that the World Championship should not be used for political promotion by any side, it has acknowledged that hosting this event in Minsk would not be appropriate when there are bigger issues to deal with and the safety and security of teams, spectators, and officials to prioritize.”

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