IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship

Complete Schedule of IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship 2019

The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual international tournament.

The IIHF was created in 1908 while the European Championships, the precursor to the World Championships, were first held in 1910. The tournament held at the 1920 Summer Olympics is recognized as the first Ice Hockey World Championship. Between 1920 and 1968, the Olympic hockey tournament was also considered the World Championship for that year.

The 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship is scheduled to be hosted by Slovakia, as announced by the IIHF on 15 May 2015.[1] It would be the second time that Slovakia is to host the event as an independent country.

As was the case in 2011, the host cities were announced to be Bratislava and Košice.

Participants
Qualified as host
1- Slovakia
Automatic qualifier after a top 14 placement at the 2018 IIHF World Championship
2- Austria
3- Canada
4- Czech Republic
5- Denmark
6- Finland
7- France
8- Germany
9- Latvia
10-Norway
11-Russia
12-Sweden
13-Switzerland
14-United States
Qualified through winning a promotion at the 2018 IIHF World Championship Division I
15-Great Britain
16-Italy

The seedings in the preliminary round are based on the 2018 IIHF World Ranking, as of the end of the 2018 IIHF World Championship, using the serpentine system. On 22 May 2018, the IIHF and the local organizing committee announced the groups, in which Slovakia and Norway switched places so that Slovakia would play in Košice and the Czech Republic and Austria would play in Bratislava.[3]