MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) – The 2016 IIHF World Championship will be held in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, not in Sochi, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Friday.
Earlier, Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov announced that the city is ready to host the championship in 2016.
"You can give my best regards to the mayor of Sochi. The World Championship will be hosted in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, it is the final decision. Sochi is already well loaded with sport events," Mutko told journalists.
There were three official bids to host the tournament – from Russia, Denmark and Ukraine. Russia was the only bidder to ever have hosted these championships. The decision determining the host of the tournament was made during the final weekend of the 2011 IIHF World Championship in Bratislava, after Denmark and Ukraine withdrew their bids.
The tournament was proposed to run from April 29 to May 15, 2016 in two venues – Megasport Arena (Moscow) and Ice Palace (Saint Petersburg).
