MOSCOW, Mar 18 The French team will replace the Russian ice hockey team at the world championship , which will be held in 2022 in Finland, according to the website of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). On February 28, the IIHF Council suspended the national teams of Russia and Belarus from international competitions for an indefinite period and deprived Omsk and Novosibirsk of the right to host the Youth World Championship — 2023. IIHF so far did not deprive Russia of the adult world championship — 2023, which is scheduled for May 5-21 in St. Petersburg. Also, the Belarusian team, which was previously suspended from participating in the tournament, will be replaced by the Austrian team. It is noted that the schedule of the tournament will remain the same. The French team will play in Group A with the teams of Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Kazakhstan and Italy, the matches will be held in Helsinki. The Austrians in group B will meet with the national teams of Finland, the USA, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Latvia, Norway and the UK, the games will be held in Tampere. The World Championship will be held on May 13-29. In connection with the admission of the French and Austrian teams to the tournament, their place in group A of the first division will be taken by the Lithuanian team, which previously was part of the participants in group B. Thus, instead of 12 teams in the second division 10.
