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2026 IIHF World Championship
The 2026 IIHF World Championship will be hosted by Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland from 15 to 31 May 2026, as the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced on 27 May 2022 in Tampere, Finland.
| Column 1 |
|---|
| Switzerland |
| 2 (in 2 host cities) |
| 15–31 May |
| 16 |
The 2026 IIHF World Championship will be hosted by Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland from 15 to 31 May 2026, as the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced on 27 May 2022 in Tampere, Finland.
The only bidders were Kazakhstan and Switzerland.
Switzerland was originally slated to host in 2020 but the tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions, while Kazakhstan has not hosted any tournaments.
In the end, on 27 May 2022, IIHF Congress awarded Switzerland rights to host the competition. No votes were needed, due to Kazakhstan's bid withdrawal earlier.
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|---|
Sixteen teams will take part in the competition for the 28th time. France and Kazakhstan, after taking part in the top division for three and four years respectively, were relegated to Division I after finishing last in their groups at the 2025 edition. They will be replaced by Division I champions Great Britain, who secured their immediate promotion back to the top division, and runners-up, Italy, who secured their promotion back to the top division after last appearing in 2022.
| Qualification | Host | Dates | Vacancies | Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top fourteen in 2025 | Herning / Stockholm | 9–25 May 2025 | 14 | United States Switzerland (H) Sweden Denmark Canada Czechia Finland Austria Germany Slovakia Latvia Norway Slovenia Hungary |
| Promoted from Division I | Sfântu Gheorghe | 27 April – 3 May 2025 | 2 | Great Britain Italy |
| Team | Qualification method | Appearance(s) | Previous best performance | WR | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | First in 2025 | 68th | 1931 | 2025 | 40 | Champions (1933, 2025) | 1 |
| Switzerland | Second in 2025 | 50th | 1930 | 28 | Runners-up (1935, 2013, 2018, 2024, 2025) | 2 | |
| Sweden | Third in 2025 | 81st | 1931 | 70 | Champions (Ten times) | 4 | |
| Denmark | Fourth in 2025 | 24th | 1949 | 23 | Fourth place (2025) | 8 | |
| Canada | Fifth in 2025 | 68th | 1930 | 46 | Champions (22 times) | 3 | |
| Czechia | Sixth in 2025 | 33rd | 1993 | 33 | Champions (1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2024) | 5 | |
| Finland | Seventh in 2025 | 73th | 1939 | 70 | Champions (1995, 2011, 2019, 2022) | 6 | |
| Austria | Eighth in 2025 | 33rd | 1930 | 5 | Third place (1931, 1947) | 11 | |
| Germany | Ninth in 2025 | 62nd | 1930 | 19 | Runners-up (1930, 1953, 2023) | 7 | |
| Slovakia | Tenth in 2025 | 30th | 1996 | 30 | Champions (2002) | 9 | |
| Latvia | Eleventh in 2025 | 33rd | 1933 | 29 | Third place (2023) | 10 | |
| Norway | Twelfth in 2025 | 41st | 1937 | 20 | Fourth place (1951) | 12 | |
| Slovenia | Thirteenth in 2025 | 12th | 2002 | 2 | Thirteenth place (2002, 2005, 2025) | 15 | |
| Hungary | Fourteenth in 2025 | 13th | 1930 | 2 | Fifth place (1937) | 16 | |
| Italy | Top two in Division I | 30th | 1930 | 2022 | 1 | Fourth place (1953) | 18 |
| Great Britain | 16th | 1930 | 2024 | 1 | Runners-up (1937, 1938) | 17 |
The seedings in the preliminary round was based on the 2025 IIHF World Ranking, at the end of the 2025 IIHF World Championship, using the serpentine system while allowing the organizers, "to allocate a maximum of two teams to separate groups".
The mascot of the tournament is a Swiss cow called Cooly. Cooly was originally the mascot of the 2009 IIHF Men's World Championship, the last men's world championship to have been hosted in Switzerland, and has since been the mascot of other sporting events in Switzerland, including the 2014 European Athletic Championships.
The slogan of the tournament is "Time to Shine".
"Time to Shine" by Swiss musician Bastian Baker was released on 6 October 2025 as the official song of the 2026 IIHF World Championship. Baker is an ice hockey fan and a former player from Laussane.
16 referees and linespersons were announced on 17 April 2026.
| Referees | Linesmen |
|---|---|
| .mw-parser-output .div-col{margin-top:0.3em;column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .div-col-small{font-size:90%}.mw-parser-output .div-col-rules{column-rule:1px solid #aaa}.mw-parser-output .div-col dl,.mw-parser-output .div-col ol,.mw-parser-output .div-col ul{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .div-col li,.mw-parser-output .div-col dd{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column} | |
| Christian Ofner | |
| Taylor Burzminski | |
| Jesse Gour | |
| Jiří Ondráček | |
| Riku Brander | |
| Mikko Kaukokari | |
| Lukas Kohlmüller | |
| André Schrader | |
| Marcus Wannerstedt | |
| Tomáš Hronský | |
| Tobias Björk | |
| Christoffer Holm | |
| Cedric Borga | |
| Michael Tscherrig | |
| Nolan Bloyer | |
| Sean MacFarlane | Brian Birkhoff |
| Mitchell Gibbs | |
| Jiří Ondráček | |
| Lukáš Rampir | |
| Onni Hautamäki | |
| Tommi Niittylä | |
| Patrick Laguzov | |
| Danny Beresford | |
| Renārs Davidonis | |
| Njaal Sostumoen | |
| Oto Durmis | |
| Gustav Jonsson | |
| Anders Nyqvist | |
| Dominic Schlegel | |
| Shane Gustafson | |
| John Rey |
Each team's roster consisted of at least 15 skaters (forwards and defencemen) and two goaltenders, and at most 22 skaters and three goaltenders. All 16 participating nations, through the confirmation of their respective national associations, had to submit a "Long List" no later than two weeks before the tournament, and a final roster by the Passport Control meeting prior to the start of the tournament.
The groups were announced on 4 June 2025, with the schedule being revealed on 19 August 2025.
| 15 May 2026 | |||||
| Finland | v | Germany | |||
| United States | v | Switzerland | |||
| 16 May 2026 | |||||
| Great Britain | v | Austria | |||
| Hungary | v | Finland | |||
| Switzerland | v | Latvia | |||
| 17 May 2026 | |||||
| Great Britain | v | United States | |||
| Austria | v | Hungary | |||
| Germany | v | Latvia | |||
| 18 May 2026 | |||||
| Finland | v | United States | |||
| Germany | v | Switzerland | |||
| 19 May 2026 | |||||
| Latvia | v | Austria | |||
| Hungary | v | Great Britain | |||
| 20 May 2026 | |||||
| Austria | v | Switzerland | |||
| United States | v | Germany | |||
| 21 May 2026 | |||||
| Finland | v | Latvia | |||
| Switzerland | v | Great Britain | |||
| 22 May 2026 | |||||
| Germany | v | Hungary | |||
| Finland | v | Great Britain | |||
| 23 May 2026 | |||||
| United States | v | Latvia | |||
| Switzerland | v | Hungary | |||
| Austria | v | Germany | |||
| 24 May 2026 | |||||
| Great Britain | v | Latvia | |||
| Finland | v | Austria | |||
| 25 May 2026 | |||||
| United States | v | Hungary | |||
| Germany | v | Great Britain | |||
| 26 May 2026 | |||||
| Hungary | v | Latvia | |||
| United States | v | Austria | |||
| Switzerland | v | Finland |
| 15 May 2026 | |||||
| Canada | v | Sweden | |||
| Czech Republic | v | Denmark | |||
| 16 May 2026 | |||||
| Slovakia | v | Norway | |||
| Italy | v | Canada | |||
| Slovenia | v | Czech Republic | |||
| 17 May 2026 | |||||
| Italy | v | Slovakia | |||
| Denmark | v | Sweden | |||
| Norway | v | Slovenia | |||
| 18 May 2026 | |||||
| Canada | v | Denmark | |||
| Sweden | v | Czech Republic | |||
| 19 May 2026 | |||||
| Italy | v | Norway | |||
| Slovenia | v | Slovakia | |||
| 20 May 2026 | |||||
| Czech Republic | v | Italy | |||
| Sweden | v | Slovenia | |||
| 21 May 2026 | |||||
| Canada | v | Norway | |||
| Denmark | v | Slovakia | |||
| 22 May 2026 | |||||
| Canada | v | Slovenia | |||
| Sweden | v | Italy | |||
| 23 May 2026 | |||||
| Denmark | v | Slovenia | |||
| Slovakia | v | Czech Republic | |||
| Norway | v | Sweden | |||
| 24 May 2026 | |||||
| Denmark | v | Italy | |||
| Slovakia | v | Canada | |||
| 25 May 2026 | |||||
| Czech Republic | v | Norway | |||
| Slovenia | v | Italy | |||
| 26 May 2026 | |||||
| Norway | v | Denmark | |||
| Sweden | v | Slovakia | |||
| Czech Republic | v | Canada |
There was a re-seeding after the quarterfinals.
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 | Column 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 May 202620:20 | WSF1 | v | WSF2 | Swiss Life Arena, Zürich |
- Official website
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