Switzerland was supposed to host this year's World Championship, however, the tournament was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, there have been talks and rumors about the possibility of taking over the organization of an edition in the immediate future. Until 2025, however, the hosts have already been chosen, therefore it is unlikely that Switzerland will get to plan its home edition before 2026.
In these regards, René Fasel, president of the IIHF, told TASS that Switzerland's application for hosting the 2026 World Championship would have a slight advantage. This statement seems to be confirmed by Franz Reindl, President of the German Ice Hockey Federation: "No one would oppose it", he says to SRF.
Nonetheless, other countries appear to be interested in organizing the tournament in 2026, namely Kazakhstan, Great Britain, and Norway. In any case, the decision will not come soon as Fasel reveals: "It’s too early to say whether we will discuss the host selection of the 2026 WC next year at the congress, we need to discuss the holding of tournaments before that."
The World Championship in 2021 will be held in Minsk (Belarus) and Riga (Latvia), in 2022 in Helsinki and Tampere (Finland), in 2023 in St. Petersburg (Russia), in 2024 in Prague and Ostrava (Czech Republic), and in 2025 in Sweden and Denmark.
