IIHF World Ranking
- The IIHF World Ranking is a tool to reflect the long-term quality of the countries' national team program. The IIHF World Ranking is based on awarding points for the final positions in the last four IIHF World Championships and in the last Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament. The 2003 IIHF World Ranking is thus based on the performance at the 2003, 2002, 2001 and the 2000 World Championship and at the 2002 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament.
- The team that wins the IIHF World Championship gold medal or the Olympic gold medal receives 1200 points. In general, there is a 20-point interval between two ranked positions (for example, 13th place receives 880 points and 14th place receives 860 points). As an exception to this principle there is a 40-point interval between gold and silver, silver and bronze, 4th and 5th position and between 8th and 9th position in the top division. The reason for the larger intervals for these positions is to give teams a bonus for reaching the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the final and for winning the gold medal.
- To enable the ranking to accurately reflect current form, the greatest importance is given to results of the last years' competition. To a lesser degree, attention is also paid to results from previous years. The system uses a four-year cycle as the points earned in one year decline in value by 25 percent each year over the next three years and in the fifth year results are dropped from the calculation altogether.
Example: Value of the gold medal
Year 1: 100% value -- 1200 points
Year 2: 75% value -- 900 points
Year 3: 50% value -- 600 points
Year 4: 25% value -- 300 points
Year 5: 0% value -- 0 points
The IIHF World Ranking will be released following each IIHF World Championship and the Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament.
- Before each World Championship, a pre-championship report will be released in which the values of the previous seasons are already reduced according to the above-described procedure and where only the points of the upcoming competition need to be added to get the IIHF World Ranking for the year.
- The World Ranking will also be used to determine the seeding tiers for the draw for the four groups at the 2005 World Championship in Austria. Teams ranked 1-4 in the 2004 World Ranking will be in one bowl, teams ranked 5-8 in the next, teams ranked 9-12 in the third and teams ranked 13-16 in the last one. The draw will take place on May 12, 2004 in Innsbruck, Austria.
