Due to the political situation and the corona pandemic in Belarus, the International Ice Hockey Federation decided on Monday that the World Ice Hockey Championships will not be played in the country.
"Due to security reasons beyond the IIHF's control, the IIHF's board decided today that no other decision could be made than to move the 2021 World Ice Hockey Championships from Minsk and Belarus.
The decision was made after a thorough investigation ", they write on their website.
Latvia offers to take over
According to the Latvian newspaper Diena, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins says that Latvia is now offering to take over the entire Ice Hockey World Cup.
But there is a requirement - they have financial compensation for the extra costs that are added.
- One of the alternatives we have suggested is that Riga can host the entire tournament, but we are also ready to cooperate with another partner, says Aigars Kalvitis, chairman of the Latvian Ice Hockey Association, to Diena.
There are three options
According to IIHF's vice chairman Kalervo Kummola, there are three alternatives where the ice hockey World Cup can be decided between 12 May and 6 June.
- Either we play the whole World Cup in Latvia, but then the other arena is a problem.
Bratislava is also ready to arrange and the same applies to Herning.
We will not take in more alternatives, but we will make a decision among these three within a few weeks, says Kummola who also has a wish for the World Cup, he says to Finnish Yle.
CLIP: The Hockey World Cup is moved from Belarus
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Newspaper in Belarus saw the IIHF's decision: "We have been robbed" Photo: Bildbyrån.