Ice hockey worlds may expand to 24 teams: what the IIHF says

Czech players heading to the 2035 world championship and preparing to face Romania, Lithuania or South Korea? Right now it sounds like a bad April Fool’s joke. But the pressure on the IIHF is growing: smaller hockey nations are pushing to expand the elite tournament from 16 to 24 teams.

Smaller nations have strengthened their position

In last week’s IIHF council elections, the drive of the “small hockey nations” to win their own representation was clearly visible. They succeeded: the 15-member council now includes South Korea, Bulgaria, New Zealand and Turkey.

It is at the initiative of federations from outside the hockey elite that expanding the top division of the world championship is increasingly being discussed. Since 1998 it has been played with sixteen teams. The countries of the first division, from which teams are promoted to the “big” world championship, are keen to add another eight participants, bringing the number of teams to 24. In the current IIHF ranking (although it does not match the makeup of the world championship), the top 24 teams include Romania, Lithuania and South Korea.

What the IIHF vice-president says

“That is their idea. But until 2034 it is not a topic: until then we have a contract with the IIHF’s marketing partner, Infront, which stipulates 16 teams at the world championship,” said IIHF senior vice-president Petr Bříza.

The new contract takes effect in 2035. The IIHF council elections have now opened the question of expansion. “When you discuss with 60 countries, you have almost 60 completely different views on what the IIHF should be, what to invest in and where the potential lies. Elections always open up a wide range of opinions, and now we have to agree among ourselves and tie it to reality,” Bříza continues.

He admits that the smaller federations’ push for expansion runs directly against the interests of the “developed” hockey world. “Of course, there is strong resistance from the big federations, which already barely want even 16 teams at the world championship. They say there are too many pointless games and that some players don’t even want to travel because of it. In their view, the tournament should have ten teams,” Bříza adds.

A world championship in Asia?

There is no unity in the IIHF either on whether the world championship should continue to be held in the established hockey countries. “Asia has long been discussed as a continent with potential. There is a lot of debate about why the championship should always be held in traditional countries. Some voices say we need to step outside the usual boundaries,” Bříza says, citing handball, which hosted the men’s world championship in Qatar in 2015.

“The problem, of course, is that such places don’t have hockey infrastructure yet,” he adds.

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz