The 2023 Bandy World Championship is an international

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

tournament between bandy playing nations. The tournament will be played in Åby, a subdivision of Växjö City in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. Two separate tournaments for men's national teams and women's national teams will take place. This

Bandy World Championship The Bandy World Championship is a competition between bandy-playing nations' men's teams. The tournament is administrated by the Federation of International Bandy. It is distinct from the Bandy World Cup, a club competition, and from the Wome ...

marks an important development for the sport at the international level. For the first time the men's world championships will take place at the same time and in the same arena as the

Women's Bandy World Championship The Women's Bandy World Championships is an international sports tournament for women and the premier international competition for women's bandy between bandy-playing nations. The tournament is administrated by the Federation of International Ban ...

which serves as the international female equivalent for the sport known as the

2023 Women's Bandy World Championship The 2023 Women's Bandy World Championship (officially the 2023 Bandy World Championship) was played in Åby, a subdivision of Växjö City in Sweden between women's national bandy teams. The competition took place from 28 March – 2 April 202 ...

. This article deals chiefly with the men's world competition. According to original plans, the 2023 championship tournament would have been hosted by

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, but since Russia is excluded from international play due to the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatist forces in Donbas, Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since Feb ...

, the idea was brought forward during autumn of 2022 that a world championship should be arranged in Sweden instead. With the permission of the

Federation of International Bandy The Federation of International Bandy (FIB; french: Fédération internationale de bandy, russian: Международная федерация хоккея с мячом, sv, Internationella Bandyförbundet) is the international governing bo ...

, the

Swedish Bandy Association The Swedish Bandy Association ( sv, Svenska Bandyförbundet) is the governing body of bandy in Sweden. It organizes the bandy leagues, Elitserien and Allsvenskan for men and Damallsvenskan for women, and the men's and women's national teams. It w ...

therefore sent an invitation, in the form of an inquiry of interest, to all countries which at the

2019 Bandy World Championship 2019 Bandy World Championship was held in Vänersborg, Sweden, between men's national teams among bandy playing nations. It was the XXXIXth Bandy World Championship. Host selection The tournament was supposed to be held in Irkutsk in Russia. Howe ...

qualified to compete in the A Division of the next world championship, except Russia. Countries invited are thus

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. The national men's bandy teams from Latvia, Estonia, and Germany decided not to participate in the 2023 tournament. Other member national bandy federations which had previously competed but would not compete in 2023 stated costs as the main factor preventing them from participating in the event. No A Division of a world championship has been played since 2019, which is why the qualification at that year’s championship has been the basis for the invitations. In 2020 the A Division was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and in 2021 there was no world championship at all for the same reason. The

2022 Bandy World Championship The 2022 Bandy World Championship was to be held from 27 March to 3 April 2022 in Syktyvkar, Russia. History The championship was originally scheduled to take place from 30 March to 4 April 2021 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Th ...

was to be played in Russia, but it was cancelled since most countries did not want to play in or against Russia following the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. Four national teams decided to withdraw after the invasion began.

Venues

All matches will be played in

Eriksson Arena Eriksson Arena is an indoor arena for bandy situated in the forest outside Åby, Växjö Municipality, Åby in Växjö Municipality in Sweden. The arena is 9 400 m² (120×78 m), it has an inner ceiling height of 12 m and is isolated. The stan ...

, Åby.

Doping detection dog

The world's first doping detection dog will be present for the tournament, an 8-year-old

Springer Spaniel Springer Spaniel refers to two different breeds of dogs, both of which are commonly called simply ''Springer Spaniel'': *English Springer Spaniel *Welsh Springer Spaniel The Welsh Springer Spaniel (''Welsh'': ''Llamgi Cymru'') is a dog breed ...

named Molly. Molly will be utilized to detect certain banned substances that are not allowed as per the

World Anti-Doping Agency The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; french: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key ...

's (WADA) prohibited list.

Squads

A Division

Finland
Kazakhstan
Norway
Sweden
USA

B Division

Czech Republic
Germany
Hungary
Netherlands
Slovakia
Switzerland

Round Robin Division A

Preliminary round

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Final Round

Third place game

Final

Final ranking

Round Robin Division B

Preliminary round

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Final Round

Semifinals

5th–6th place game

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Third place game

Final

Final ranking

Sources

{{World championships in 2023 Bandy World Championships

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

2023 in Swedish sport International bandy competitions hosted by Sweden

Sports events affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...