World Class Ice Hockey

The 2008 IIHF World Championship

Each year, in April/May, the 16 best national ice hockey teams in the world come together to play 56 exciting games to establish the new World Champion.

The 2008 IIHF World Championship will be played in Canada in the cities of Halifax (Metro Center) and Quebec (Colisée). The participating teams will include the very best from Europe and North America — Belarus, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA.

Television audiences and spectator totals for the Championships — the biggest single winter sports event in the world — are rising year on year. The event will attract a world-wide television audience from the global community of ice hockey fans, expected to exceed 700 million viewers on a cumulative basis. Spectator totals for the event in the Czech Republic (2004) reached a record of 552,097.

Long-term partnerships

The loyal group of Official Sponsors is led by long-term partner Škoda as the Official Main Sponsor, with Tissot (watches, Switzerland), Nike (sportswear, USA), Intersport (sports retail, Switzerland), Konica Minolta (copiers, Japan) and Henkel (adhesives and detergents, Germany) among the sponsor group.

France and Slovenia join the 16 top teams again, as winners of the Division 1 groups 2007. Austria and the Ukraine had to leave the World Seniors (the former “A-Pool”) in 2007 and will now face tough Division 1 qualification rounds.

Prior to the World Championship in Canada, 12 nations will play the 2008 IIHF World Championship Division 1, in two groups, with the aim of achieving the entry of one team per group into the 2009 IIHF World Championship. The two groups will be staged in Innsbruck/Austria and Sapporo/Japan in mid April 2008.

Looking forward

The 2009 IIHF World Championship will take place in Switzerland in the cities of Berne and Zurich-Kloten. The 2010 IIHF World Championship will take place in Germany in the cities of Mannheim and Cologne and in 2011 event will be staged in Slovakia in the cities of Kosice and Bratislava. For 2012 the event has been awarded to Finland and in 2013 the IIHF World Championship will be played in Sweden.

Infront is the exclusive commercial partner of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and offers TV rights (for live, delayed, highlights and news broadcasts as well as radio and new media rights for the IIHF World Championships and the Division 1 Groups A and B to be played each year in April/May.

Search the Infront Event calendar for the more IIHF events.

Visit the official Website of the IIHF.