Events

France to host IIHF World Championship in 2028

Featured image credit: French Ice Hockey Federation

France has been awarded hosting rights for the 2028 Ice Hockey World Championship, with games to be played at Accor Arena in Paris and LDLC Arena in Lyon.

France co-hosted the event in 2017, as Paris staged games alongside Cologne in Germany. France also co-hosted the first standalone edition of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) event in 1930, when games were played in Chamonix.

The 2028 edition, which will take place from May 12-28, will mark the first time Lyon has hosted games. The city’s LDLC Arena, which is the largest indoor arena in France outside of Paris, opened last year and serves as the home of basketball team LDLC ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne.

During the Ice Hockey World Championship, LDLC Arena will have a capacity of 12,500. The arena has a capacity of 16,000 for concerts.

The 15,000-capacity Accor Arena in Paris will again host games during the 2028 Ice Hockey World Championship, having done so in 2017. The arena will be a host venue during this summer’s Olympic Games, staging basketball finals and artistic gymnastics.

Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, president of the French Ice Hockey Federation (FFHG), said: “We wanted this very badly. We need it to achieve our very ambitious growth strategy, hopefully in conjunction with the Olympics in 2030. We can do it. We will deliver.”

The French Alps are set to host the 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games after the International Olympic Committee invited the region into a targeted dialogue for the event back in November. Salt Lake City has also been selected as the preferred host of the 2034 Games.

More detailed discussions are currently taking place with the preferred hosts, with the aim of awarding both editions at the 142nd IOC Session in July in Paris.

This year’s Ice Hockey World Championship took place in the Czech Republic and concluded on Sunday, with close to 800,000 fans attending games. The 2025 event will take place in Sweden and Denmark, the 2026 edition will be held in Switzerland, and the 2027 event will be hosted by Germany.