The German national team will compete in Group A in Lausanne at the 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship (May 8 to 24, 2020 in Switzerland). The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced this on Tuesday morning. The team of national coach Toni Söderholm will compete in the preliminary round against Canada, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Belarus and Great Britain.
The Group B games will be played in Zurich. Russia, world champions Finland, the USA, Switzerland, Latvia, Norway, Italy and Kazakhstan meet in the indoor stadium.
The nations are assigned to the preliminary round groups based on their world ranking position. The national team improved one position thanks to its performance at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Slovakia and is now in seventh place ahead of Switzerland.
The 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship is the tenth World Championship to be held in Switzerland since 1935. The last World Championship took place in Bern and Kloten in 2009.
Ticket sales for the tournament have already started. So far are in the ticket shop The arena packages for all games in Zurich (34 games) and Lausanne (30 games), as well as the preliminary round and final round packages are available. Sales of day tickets will start in September 2019. Single tickets will be available from February/March 2020.
Franz Reindl, DEB-President: "We are looking forward to the World Cup in Switzerland. Both groups again feature big nations. Canada and Sweden are tough opponents for our national team, but we also expect close, hard-fought games against the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Belarus and Great Britain. This means that there will be a tough fight for the quarter-final places."
Stefan Schaidnagel, DEB-Sports Director: "The 2020 World Cup in Switzerland will be our next chance to further establish ourselves in world ice hockey. Similar to this year, we can expect high-class opponents like Canada and Sweden. We also have teams in the group that promise close games, which we will focus on. We must continue to be aware that we will approach the games with very high intensity and very good preparation. Due to many factors, there is no guarantee of progressing to the final round at any World Cup. We are looking forward to Lausanne and hope for a lot of support from our German team. Fans"