OREANDA-NEWS. May 12, 2009. The Annual Congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation selected Belarus as the venue of the 2014 IIHF World Championship. Seventy-five delegated voted for Belarus, 24 for Hungary, 3 for Latvia and 2 for Ukraine, one delegate abstained.

The Czech Republic, which also intended to bid for the 2014 Worlds, withdrew its application.

Latvia has previously hosted a World Championship while Belarus, Hungary and Ukraine never held a (top division) World Championship in their country.

Belarus will host the event with the 15,000-seater Minsk Arena as the main venue. It is under construction and will be inaugurated in November. Another new arena in Minsk with a capacity of 7,700 is planned in the Chizhovka district. Its construction will finish in 2011.

Belarus applied to host the world championships in 2010 and 2013 but lost to Germany and Sweden.

The next World Championships are allocated to Germany in 2010 (Cologne, Mannheim), Slovakia in 2011 (Bratislava, Kosice), Finland in 2012 (Helsinki, Turku), and Sweden in 2013 (Stockholm, Malme).