(ATR) Latvia will host the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship on its own.
The International Ice Hockey Federation Council confirmed on Tuesday that Riga, Latvia has gone from co-host to sole host after Minsk, Belarus was removed as co-host for the tournament last month.
The IIHF Council decided that, given the COVID-19 pandemic, "keeping all teams in Riga throughout the tournament and avoiding travel between two host countries is the safest and most cost-effective way to operate the event".
The decision was reached following a review process by the IIHF Office, which also examined hosting offers from Bratislava, Slovakia, and Herning, Denmark.
"I would like to thank our members from Denmark and Slovakia for their willingness to assume hosting duties for the World Championship on such short notice," said IIHF President René Fasel in a statement.
"But ultimately the Council believes that keeping the whole tournament in one country allows us to be flexible. We can find cost-effective solutions to implement a bubble concept, but also we can put ourselves in a ready position to welcome fans to the World Championship if it is safe to do so."
The new plan for the tournament, which will run from May 21-June 6, would allow for a bubble to be set up with relative ease.
All 16 of the participating teams will be staying in the same hotel.
The two venues, Arena Riga and the Olympic Sports Centre, are about 150 meters apart. The Daugava Ice Rink, approximately 10 minutes from the venues, will serve as the practice arena with two ice sheets. It is currently under construction and scheduled to be finished by the end of March.
The IIHF says that should the COVID-19 situation in Latvia improve to the point that spectators would be allowed to attend the games, the federation together with the Local Organizing Committee would be prepared to initiate a ticketing offer within three days of receiving government approval to host fans in the venues.
The IIHF Council last month withdrew the event from Belarus and its authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko because it was "impossible to ensure the welfare of teams, spectators and Belarusian officials".
IIHF partners Skoda, Nivea and Liqui Moly had threatened to pull their sponsorships if the IIHF kept the tournament in Belarus amid the political turmoil that began in August after Lukashenko was re-elected president in what is considered a rigged vote.
In the ensuing months, calls to strip Belarus of co-hosting due to human rights abuses against athletes and political discrimination by the Lukashenko government had grown increasingly louder.
Latvia previously hosted the tournament on its own in 2006.
Written by Gerard Farek
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