Next year's Ice Hockey World Cup was scheduled to be held in St. Petersburg on May 5-21, 2023. However, due to Russia's offensive war against Ukraine, the International Ice Hockey Federation has decided to withdraw from Russia the event.
In connection with the IIHF's congress on 26-27 May, the IIHF will announce where the World Cup 2023 will be played instead.
Planning for games in Riga
One country that is interested in the event is Finland, which will host the World Cup which starts on Friday.
Namely, they are considering registering their interest, together with Latvia - where the World Cup was played last year.
- We are seriously considering submitting a bid together with Finland.
One of the groups would then play in Riga and the other in Tampere.
We are ready to take that responsibility.
We will see how this develops in the next few days, says Aigars Kalvitis, according to the Latvian news agency Leta.
Slovenia and Hungary have also previously announced that they are interested in sharing the event.