The International Ice Hockey Federation said on Tuesday that the Finland-Latvia bid had not been opposed after a rival bid from Hungary and Slovenia withdrew. The IIHF said it was because the Hungarian hosts in the bid “did not receive government guarantees”.

An IIHF congress is scheduled to confirm Finland and Latvia as hosts on Friday.

Russia was due to host the 2023 tournament in President Vladimir Putin’s hometown of St Petersburg, but the IIHF deleted it as host on April 26, two months after the start of the invasion of Ukraine. The IIHF raised security and concerns about “the safe freedom of movement of players and officials to, from and within Russia.”

Russia and its ally Belarus were also excluded from this year’s tournament in Finland, and Russia lost the hosting rights for next year’s world junior championship.

The IIHF also said on Tuesday that Switzerland was not against bidding to host the 2026 men’s world championship after Kazakhstan withdrew. Switzerland will host for the first time since 2009 and were due to host in 2020 before the tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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