2005 World Championship Draw Today!

 Who will go where in 2005? Tune in Wednesday to find out

Three days after the conclusion of the 2004 IIHF World Championship in the Czech Republic, the draw for the 2005 IIHF World Championship in Austria (Vienna and Innsbruck, April 30 – May 15) will be held in Innsbruck today at 13.30 CET.

The draw will be broadcast live on IHWC.NET and on Austrian television ORF. Check the LIVE DRAW AUSTRIA 2005 function on the front page of the IHWC.NET, lower right corner.

The draw, which will be conducted by IIHF President René Fasel, will go accordingly to this procedure:

The names of the 16 participating teams will be placed in four bowls according to their position in the IIHF World Ranking following the 2004 IIHF World Championship.

The number within brackets after each nation indicates its current position in the 2004 IIHF World Ranking.

Bowl 1 (1-4): Canada (1), Sweden (2), Slovakia (3) and Czech Republic (4).

Bowl 2 (5-8): Finland (5), USA (6), Russia (7) and Germany (8).

Bowl 3 (9-12): Switzerland (9), Latvia (10), Austria (11) and Ukraine (12).

Bowl 4 (13-16): Belarus (13), Denmark (14), Slovenia (16), Kazakhstan (17).

The draw will start with the hosting country Austria seeding two teams of their choice, with one going to the Vienna group A and the other being seeded into the Innsbruck group B.

The draw will continue with the teams of Bowl 4 being drawn into the four playing groups. The same procedure will be applied for the Groups 3,2 and 1 until all 16 teams are slotted in the four groups, A, B, C and D.