Further cancel­la­tions

After the IIHF World Championships for U20 men (Division I Group A to Division III) and U18 women (from the Top Division to Division II Group B) were already cancelled in September following the recommendation of the Covid-19 expert group by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for the 2020/21 season, Wednesday brought the next shock for the international ice hockey world. A further 18 World Championship tournaments have been cancelled prematurely due to the coronavirus situation.

From an Austrian perspective, this affects the women's and men's national teams (both Division I Group A), as well as the men's U18 national team (Division I Group B), all of whom had been due to contest their championships in spring 2021. These three teams were also unable to compete at a World Championship this year due to the emerging pandemic.

The international federation cites the continuing worldwide travel restrictions, the difficulties of staging a safe World Championship tournament, potential quarantine regulations and excessive financial risk for organisers and participants as reasons for the early decision.

"It comes as a great surprise to us that the cancellation of tournaments scheduled for April and May next year has already been announced in mid-November. We have to accept this decision and discuss over the coming weeks how we want to continue the season with the national teams. We must not forget that, hopefully, Olympic qualification for the women's and men's teams can take place next year," says ÖEHV President Dr Klaus Hartmann. The men will initially retain their late-August date, while the women are not expected to play for an Olympic spot until November.

This leaves only one Austrian national team in action at a World Championship this season. In preparation for the "Bubble World Championship" in Canada, the U20 national team will convene on 6 December at the Sport.Zentrum Niederösterreich in St. Pölten with an extended World Championship squad of 36 players.

Three negative PCR tests are required during this one-week training camp in order to board the charter flight to Edmonton on 13 December. In the 14-day window before the planned departure, there must not be a single positive coronavirus test within the entire Austrian delegation. At the World Championship venue, the first training sessions are scheduled from 18 December, following a short quarantine in hotel rooms, followed by two warm-up games against Germany and Slovakia.

Austria open the World Championship tournament against the USA on 26 December, before facing Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic later in the preliminary round. The final round follows, with no relegation games taking place due to the cancellation of all other U20 World Championship tournaments. All World Championship participants (teams, officials, TV etc.) must record their movements daily in an app, are tested on site every day and will live in a "bubble" in the Ice District around Rogers Place in Edmonton for almost four weeks.