During an Extra-Ordinary meeting held on Monday, 2nd March to discuss the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the IIHF Council has decided to follow the recommendation of the IIHF Medical Committee to cancel the following IIHF tournaments:
MEN's UNDER-18 category:
2020 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship Division II Group A
22-28 March in Tallinn, Estonia
2020 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship Division II Group B
23-29 March in Sofia, Bulgaria
2020 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship Division III Group A
16-22 March in Istanbul, Turkey
2020 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship Division III Group B
29 March-04 April in Kockelscheuer, Luxembourg
WOMEN's category:
2020 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division I Group B
28 March-03 April in Katowice, Poland
2020 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division II Group A
29 March-03 April in Jaca, Spain
Note: The 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship in Halifax and Truro, Canada currently remains on schedule.
The IIHF Medical Committee came up with the recommendation to cancel these tournaments during its meeting on Saturday, 1st March in Budapest, Hungary.
The IIHF Council will reconvene in Zurich in mid-March for its annual spring meeting. During this meeting the Council will evaluate the impact of these cancellations, with regards to any financial compensation for already-incurred costs to tournament organizers as well as to the participating teams.
The IIHF Competition and Coordination Committee is also reviewing the sportive impact of the tournament cancellations and will present recommendations to the IIHF Council during its March meeting.
In the meantime, the IIHF Office continues to monitor the development of the coronavirus and will re-evaluate daily the capability of tournament organizers to host IIHF championships in April. Based on the developments of the coming weeks, the IIHF Council will be presented with a series of scenarios during its March meeting before deciding on the next course of action.
“I would like to thank the Medical Committee for their recommendation after very intense discussions over this weekend, I also thank our Council Members for their support of this recommendation in such challenging times,” said IIHF President René Fasel following the Council’s Extra-Ordinary meeting. “We will carefully evaluate on a daily basis the developments within our member countries.”
The 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship, and all subsequent championships to be played in April and May 2020 remain on schedule while the IIHF continues to monitor the situation.
Note: The 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division IV in Bishkek, Kyrgysztan (03-05 March 2020) was also cancelled by local government authorities last week due to the coronavirus.