ABOUT THE 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 2019 IIHF World Ranking published in May 2017 is thus based on the performance at the 2019, 2018, 2017, and the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship and at the 2018 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament in PyeongChang (plus the Olympic Qualification for non-qualified teams).

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, 880 points for the 13th place and 860 points for the 14th place). As an exception to this principle there is a 40-point interval between gold and silver, silver and bronze, the 4th and 5th position and between the 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. (The bonus formula can be changed with any alterations to the playing format).

To enable the ranking to accurately reflect current form, the greatest importance is given to results of the last year's 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 linearly within the next 3 years and in the 5th 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 Ice Hockey World Championship and the Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament.

Before each World Championship, a pre-championship report will be calculated, 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.

More details about the IIHF World Ranking can be found in the IIHF Sport Regulations .

Please direct inquiries about the World Ranking system to  [email protected]