Interesting, will that replace the EHT then? EHT is in desperate need of a rework, so I support thisIIHF - A report from the IIHF Congress
The IIHF traditionally holds its Annual Congress during the IIHF ...www.iihf.com
The IIHF will also start a European Cup of Nations to ensure that all national teams can play meaningful games during European international breaks. Twelve Member National Associations will participate.
I assume we will hear more about this at IIHF semi-annual congress in October (Nice, France). What confuses me is they said "all national teams can play" and then "twelve members will participate".
I wonder: Will this cup possibly for mid-range countries rather than the top dogs? The top dogs already often have meaningful games during breaks.I assume we will hear more about this at IIHF semi-annual congress in October (Nice, France). What confuses me is they said "all national teams can play" and then "twelve members will participate".
I had a chance to sneak peek into 25/26 IIHF budget and there is one for this competition, so maybe it will start in November or December NT break.
Kazakhstan is scheduled to compete at the IIHF Asia Championship to be organised in China. Very likely in November like the inaugural one 6 months ago.
Me too. Remove EHT. Replace it with 1 tournament called Euro Championships. January. 16 teams. 4 Groups. 1st and 2nd in every group advance to Qf. It would be more prestige than EHT. And all best possible players from the Euro Leauges will be there. Unlike in EHT when lots of players are always missing because its divided into 4 tournaments.
Or simply copy-paste Uefa Nations league format.
February. And IIHF Worlds every second year - in those years replaced by THIS EURO TOURNAMENT.
sportacentrs.com
Thanks.Skaidrojam: IIHF jaunais izlašu turnīrs - ko tas sola Latvijas izlasei?
IIHF Eiropas Nāciju kauss - vismaz sākumā tas notiks bez četrām vadošajām Eiropas izlasēm
The IIHF Congress approved plans to create a new national team tournament - the European Nations Cup. The IIHF statement devoted only two sentences to this new competition, leaving most questions unanswered. Latvian Hockey Federation Secretary General Roberts Pļavējs explained to Sportacentrs.com what exactly is planned for this tournament and what the Latvian national team will do in it.
"The IIHF will begin hosting the European Nations Cup to ensure that all national teams can play significant matches during European international match windows. 12 national federations will participate," the IIHF said in a statement about the congress.
Even without taking into account the first obvious logical error (12 teams are not "all national teams"), very little information has been provided about the new tournament. For now, the format of the tournament and other details are still being worked out, but the Latvian national team will participate, confirmed LHF Secretary General Roberts Pļāvējs.
"There have been long-term discussions about the creation of this tournament, various initiatives have been heard. The main thing I can confirm is that yes, we will participate," said the LHF Secretary General. "It is difficult to talk about the format of the tournament at the moment, because it is still in the preparatory stage, but the idea is that the teams are divided into groups and play tournaments, after which they qualify for the grand final. This Nations Cup will replace the test matches in the IIHF national team windows."
"The important thing, of course, is that at least for now, the Nations Cup will not feature all the strongest teams," continued Pļavējs. "Four teams - Sweden, the Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland - will not participate in this tournament for at least the first two seasons."
These four leading teams play the Eurotour season during the IIHF international play periods, which is a series of four tournaments with a single overall ranking and provides the leading European teams with regular and high-quality test matches, and the Eurotour also has commercial value for the participating teams. Therefore, it is clear that Sweden, the Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland are not rushing to confirm their participation in a new and yet to be fully developed national team tournament.
"I understand that the IIHF's hope is to master the market in two years, show what the benefits of such a tournament are and what money is available here, and then attract the leading teams," said Pļavējs. "In the current situation, it would be 12 of the next European teams participating, and we would be in the first pot. With such a composition, it is difficult to create a format so that the level of our preparatory games remains at the previous quality level. But we will see."
Looking at the IIHF world ranking of men's teams (which the IIHF is in no hurry to update after the last World Cup, because it is probably not excited about which disqualified team will have to be presented as the leader of the new ranking ), after the Eurotour participants, the next 12 European teams would be: Germany, Denmark, Slovakia, Latvia, Austria, Norway, Kazakhstan, France, Slovenia, Hungary, Great Britain and Italy. If Kazakhstan does not enter the "European team" category, then Poland is next in the ranking. However, these are only estimates, and the IIHF has not yet announced the composition of the women's participants.
"Why was such a Nations Cup created at all? As far as I know, there are two big reasons for this," explained the LHF Secretary General.
"First, it is difficult for many countries to find opponents for test matches," he said. "This has been discussed for a long time in IIHF working groups and commissions, how to create a system to help all national teams here. Unfortunately, the reality now is that national teams, when thinking about their test matches, are stratified into their own clubs. There are "Top 4" teams, there are Scandinavian countries, etc. It was also difficult for us to arrange good-level test matches for ourselves before. Now the situation has improved, we are often invited and participate in very good-level tournaments abroad."
This season, the Latvian national team played in Slovakia in December in the "Kaufland" Cup, where they competed against Slovakia and Norway. In turn, at the end of 2025, participation in the prestigious "Deutschland Cup" with Germany, Slovakia and Austria is planned in November. The LHF Secretary General pointed out that the new IIHF national team tournament should not affect the already planned Latvian national team schedule for the 2025/26 season.
"And the second reason is to create an interesting and high-quality product to include in its new video streaming platform "IIHF TV". It is a new platform that offers all IIHF tournament games, and its own national team tournament with regular games throughout the season will be very good additional content there," explained Pļavējs. "So in an ideal scenario, the IIHF manages to earn more with its TV platform and accordingly has more funds to distribute to the participants of the Nations Cup and also attract the strongest teams. But there are still many steps that need to be taken to make this happen."
Turning to the distribution of IIHF funds, the congress report mentioned that the current support system would be reviewed. The IIHF report called it an "improvement of the development support system", while Pļavējs did not hide that this most likely means a decrease in the funding received by the LHF.
"The exact numbers and new amounts are not yet available, as they will be calculated according to a new formula, but it is clear that this will negatively affect us," said Pļavējs. "Previously, support for the development of hockey from the IIHF program was received mainly by hockey federations representing the elite division. Now the support funding will also be calculated according to the results of the Women's World Cup, U20 World Cup, as well as both the Women's and Men's U18 Championships. Well, it is clear that this average indicator for us will be lower than the place of our men's team in the elite division."
The LHF 2024/25 budget indicates that the IIHF's funding was 200 thousand euros.
It should be noted that, driven by similar motivations, UEFA introduced a football tournament - the Nations League - a few years ago. This tournament was also intended as a substitute for international friendlies, providing all teams with a guaranteed schedule of matches outside the official tournament calendar.
Mainly the KHL clubs, but not only. 
