MOSCOW, Sep 8 Bronze medalist of the 2022 World Championship, the Czech team at the next the World Championship will play in Group B, according to the official website of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). In the lists published after the end of the 2022 World Championship, the Czech Republic team received a place in Group A, and the US team was in Group B. On Thursday, the IIHF published the schedule for the 2023 tournament year with changes in the composition of the groups, which are based on the organizational wishes of the organizing committee. Group A will play the teams of Finland, USA, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, France, Austria and Hungary. Matches will be held in Finnish Tampere. Group B, whose teams will play in Riga, includes teams from Canada, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, Kazakhstan and Slovenia. The first matches of the tournament will take place on May 12, the World Cup will be opened by the meetings Finland — USA and Slovakia — Czech Republic, which will be held in parallel. The group stage will end on May 23. Quarter-final matches will be held on May 25 in Tampere and Riga, the national teams of Finland and Latvia, if they reach the playoffs, will play at home grounds. Semi-finals (May 27) and medal matches (May 28) will be held in Tampere. Earlier, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) suspended the national teams of Russia and Belarus from international competitions for an indefinite period and deprived Russia of the right to host the youth and adult world championships in 2023. Championship the world was originally supposed to take place in St. Petersburg. In July, the IIHF congress approved the holding of the 2023 tournament in Tampere and Riga.
