Member Nations gather in Greece

The 2024 IIHF Semi-Annual Congress in Rhodes, Greece, produced two days of engaged discussion. Advancing the role of women in the upper echelons of the management of our game was a key topic, alongside allocating some upcoming tournaments and welcoming two new IIHF members.

Delegates also voted on a range of amendments to the IIHF’s statutes and bylaws, as well as hearing updates on preparations for the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Denmark and Sweden, and a report on progress towards the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina.

More women represented on IIHF Council

The next IIHF Council election will see 15 voting members chosen by Congress. And, for the first time, at least three Council members will be women. In addition, a working group will be set up to explore ways of further increasing female representation on the Council to align with the Olympic charter.

And there are further changes in other parts of the IIHF administration. Congress supported an amendment to the statutes covering the finance, audit, ethics and operational committees, as well as the disciplinary board. Starting from the 2026 session, at least one-third of the members of these bodies will be female, and at least one-third male.

The changes help to move the IIHF’s reputation as a forward-looking supporter of opportunities for all.

Another change that provides equal opportunities for female players sees extra roster spaces opened for the IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship and U18 Women's Worlds. This brings the women’s tournaments in line with their male counterparts with 22 skaters and three goaltenders on each team.
 
New format for Women’s Worlds

Starting with the 2025-26 season, the IIHF Women’s World Championship will adopt a new tournament format.

The flagship competition will continue with 10 teams, but the two groups will be established using “snake seeding” to create two sections of equal rank. This is in line with the World Juniors and similar to the U18 Women's Worlds. As a result of this change, the teams that finish last in each group will play a relegation game to determine which returns for the following season.

Sustainability award goes to Sweden

After hosting a successful World Junior Championship in Gothenburg, there was more praise for Sweden, as it won the 2024 IIHF Sustainability Award. The Swedes earned the prize thanks to a multi-faceted approach to staging a tournament that embraced many different aspects of sustainability.

Some approaches were familiar – encouraging the use of sustainable transport, eliminating unnecessary waste, using tap water instead of bottled water. But the tournament organizers also embraced a wider range of sustainability aims: opportunities for people of different abilities, widespread use of sign language and visual interpretation as well as traditional audio and text communication. Passing on leftover food from the arenas at the end of each day was another wise step. On top of that, the Kanslopucken (Puck of Emotion) social media campaign emphasized the value of hockey – in particular its team spirit – for people’s wellbeing.

There were 10 applicants for this year’s Sustainability Award, all of them countries that hosted a World Championship event at some level last season. The Netherlands took second place for the Green Book sustainability manifesto produced alongside the U18 Women's Division II championship. Third place went to Poland, which installed vending machines that offered free game tickets in return for recycling five plastic bottles.

In future seasons, the Sustainability Award will be open to all Member National Associations, not just countries that are hosting IIHF events.

Tournament hosts set

As part of a potential upcoming deal between the IIHF, USA Hockey and the NHL, the United States was confirmed as the host nation for the 2027 and 2029 Men’s U18 World Championships.

The Semi-Annual Congress also confirmed hosts for three more tournaments in the 2024-25 season. The Men’s Division IV will take place in Yerevan, Armenia. This represents a return to international action for the Armenians, who last competed as the Division III host in 2010. Iran, Kuwait, Indonesia, Malaysia, Uzbekistan and Armenia will go head-to-head 13-19 April, 2025.

The U18 Women's Division IA will see Germany, Italy, Austria, France and Norway travel to Budapest, Hungary. The tournament runs 5-11 january, 2025. And Women’s U18 Division III is set for Zagreb, Croatia. Preliminary dates of 23-26 January are in place for a four-team event featuring Lithuania, Romania, Thailand and the Croatian host nation. However, Estonia may also enter a team, which would lead to the dates being revised.
 
Bahrain, Kenya join the hockey family

The 2024 Semi-Annual Congress approved applications from two new associate members. Bahrain and Kenya were unanimously accepted into the IIHF.

As our global family grows, so the IIHF looks to provide more ways for countries to engage and develop. Starting next year, the Global Hockey Forum will offer a new avenue for member nations to share expertise and ideas. In addition, after the success of the first development manager in Asia, IIHF hired one person to help Europe and Africa and is close to appointing to three more similar roles for Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe.

IIHF targets 3x3 in 2030

Proposals to introduce 3x3 hockey as an Olympic event in 2030 are coming close to D-day. Since the 2017/18 season, the IIHF has been developing a 3x3 tournament format, trialling different set-ups at the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne 2020 and Gangneung 2024. More recently, test events involving senior players have been staged in various countries and a further tournament is planned for Brazil in November.

The International Olympic Committee is seeking proposals for new disciplines for the 2030 Winter Games in France and the IIHF is preparing its submission ahead of the Jan. 2025 deadline. A decision would be expected in March.

IIHF President Luc Tardif told the Semi-Annual Congress that a 3x3 hockey tournament would mean 16 more teams (eight men’s, eight women’s) bringing 240 more athletes to compete in the Olympic Winter Games. Following the success of similar “scaled-down” sports such as 3x3 basketball and rugby sevens at the recent Paris Games, there is a belief that 3x3 hockey can be a big way of engaging new audiences and increasing participation worldwide. It would also double the number of medals on offer in what is the biggest sport at the Winter Olympics in terms of participation numbers and competition time.

“The boost that 3x3 basketball, rugby sevens or beach volleyball had on the original discipline was something that they never expected. It had a huge impact on recruitment and financial opportunity,” Tardif told the delegates.

“There is an open door for hockey. This is our time.”