At today’s IIHF Semi-Annual Congress in Nice, France, it was confirmed that the 2026 Women’s World Championships would be hosted by Denmark, but more consequentially would be held in November, confirmed to be a permanent shift in moving the typical spring tournament to early November going forward, just prior to the start of the Professional Women’s Hockey League pro seasons.

The tournament will be hosted in both Herning and a city to be named from 06-16 November 2026, nine months after the 2026 Olympics in Milan, marking just the second time that the Worlds will be held the same year as the Olympics; the previous iteration, also hosted by Denmark (in Herning and Frederikshavn) was held from 25 August to 04 September, marking Canada’s twelfth World Championship. The 2022 version previously marked the latest in the calendar the tournament has been held, which will now be eclipsed by a margin of 73 days.

There was a long delay in the IIHF confirming whether the 2026 tournament would be held in April, its traditional time, or the summer (as per the 2022 example), which was speculated to be due to negotiations between the IIHF and PWHL. However, the November announcement seems to have taken the hockey world by surprise, more so given that it was confirmed by both the Swedish and Finnish federations that 2026 will mark the start of an annual November tournament. While this schedule change fits the PWHL calendar nicely, it would have an impact on European women’s leagues, and other fall international tournaments (such as the Four Nations Cup or Rivalry Series) would likely now stand in as exhibition tune-ups in advance of the Worlds.

The 2026 tournament will also mark the first time since 2011 where a serpentine grouping system will be used, meaning that perennial powerhouses Canada and the United States will start the tournament in separate groups. While this was the standard for the first two decades of the tournament, the format was shifted in 2012 to have all top ranked teams in the same group; but given recent parity in women’s hockey, the tournament will revert back to the original format, meaning that Group A will feature the United States, Czechia, Switzerland, Germany and Austria, while Group B will feature Canada, Finland, Sweden, Japan and hosts Denmark.

In other Congress news, the IIHF announced the formation of the IIHF European Cup of Nations, meant to harness development for emerging men’s hockey nations across international breaks in the season. Similar to the Nations Cup format in international soccer, this tournament will largely replace the Euro Hockey Challenge, focusing on countries below the Euro Hockey Tour stage, with seventeen national teams competing in separate groups. The countries range from traditional (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Slovakia) to emerging (France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovenia) to lesser (Estonia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania, Spain) hockey powers, likely spelling the end of smaller regional tournaments like the Deutschland Cup, Kaufland Cup or Euro Ice Hockey Challenge.

Photo Credit: 2025 Women’s World Championship – IIHF – HHOF – IOC