2021 IIHF World Championship


The 2021 IIHF World Championship will be co-hosted by Minsk, Belarus and Riga, Latvia, as the IIHF announced on 19 May 2017. It will take place from 21 May to 6 June 2021. Their joint bid won by a very tight margin against the Finnish bid with the cities of Tampere and Helsinki. Each city will host one group and two quarter-final games, with both semi-finals and the medal games to be played in Minsk. It will be the second time hosting for both cities; Minsk was the sole host of the 2014 IIHF World Championship, while Riga hosted the 2006 IIHF World Championship.

Venues

Participants

Qualified as host
Automatic qualifier after the cancellation of the 2020 IIHF World Championship

Seeding

The seedings in the preliminary round are based on the 2020 IIHF World Ranking, as of the end of the 2019 IIHF World Championship, using the serpentine system.
Group A
Group B
The groups were announced on 20 May 2020.

Group A

Group B