News of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk and Riga

Belarus actively preparing for 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship

MINSK, 28 August (BelTA) – Belarus continues actively preparing for the ice hockey world championship that it will cohost together with Latvia. Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko made the relevant statement at a session of the committee in charge of organizing and holding the championship in Minsk in 2021, BelTA has learned.

There were five items on the agenda regarding the main aspects of preparations for and the actual ice hockey world championship: the fulfillment of the planned preparations, the ticket program, the preparation of Minsk Arena, the organization of the fan village, and the concept of the opening ceremony.

Roman Golovchenko noted that this year’s ice hockey world championship was supposed to take place in Switzerland but it was cancelled due to the unfavorable epidemic situation. The next year’s ice hockey world championship, which is scheduled to take place in Minsk and Riga, is still on track. Its timeline has not changed considerably: at present the ice hockey world championship is scheduled to take place on 21 May – 6 June 2021.

According to Roman Golovchenko, statements made by Belarus’ partners are a bit surprising. “The prime minister of Latvia has stated he intends to contact the International Ice Hockey Federation with an initiative of replacing Belarus with another country. The statement sounds odd particularly taking into account the fact that the ice hockey federations of both countries continue preparing the world championship in collaboration with the International Ice Hockey Federation,” he said.

In turn, Acting Chairman of the Ice Hockey Federation of Belarus Dmitry Baskov noted: “We have contract commitments to hold the ice hockey world championship together with the Latvian organizing committee. But if for some reason the Latvian side refuses to cohost the championship, we have sufficient resources and capabilities of the infrastructure to host the championship on our own.”

Roman Golovchenko stressed that Belarus is actively preparing for the ice hockey world championship. The championship directorate has been set up. A business plan of the relevant investment project is being implemented. Twelve subcommittees of the organizing committee are hard at work. A mascot has been chosen. “The fact that a lot has already been done in Minsk for the sake of hosting international sport events is definitely a plus. The volume of organizational and technical tasks that need to be done is considerably smaller in comparison with 2014. But we will have to work hard in order to make the ice hockey world championship a truly memorable event for ice hockey fans all over the world,” Roman Golovchenko concluded.

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