For the third time in its history after 1951 and 2017, France will organize the 2028 Elite Ice Hockey World Cup in Paris and Lyon, the International Federation (IIHF) announced in a press release on Friday.
“I am very proud and happy of the trust shown in us by the great hockey family, by recognizing our ability to organize an event of such scale,” underlined the president of the French Ice Hockey Federation, Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, quoted in the International Federation press release.
The 2028 World Cup will take place from May 12 to 28 at Paris-Bercy, a historic 14,500-seat sports hall in the south-east of the French capital, and in Lyon at the LDLC Arena, an ultra-modular 16,000-seat hall inaugurated at the end of 2023. and which notably hosts Tony Parker’s Asvel basketball matches.
Bercy had already hosted the 2017 World Cup, co-organized by France and Germany (at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne), with group stage matches and two quarter-finals in Paris.
After the 2028 World Cup, France should then organize the 2030 Winter Olympic Games, with the candidacy of the French Alps being alone in “targeted dialogue” with the International Olympic Committee, with a decision expected on July 23 and 24 in Paris, before the opening of the 2024 Summer Games.