After 2025, Christian Ofner can also look forward to playing at the 2026 World Cup in Switzerland this year. The 32-year-old is currently in action almost every other day in the playoffs of the win2day ICE Hockey League. At the same time, the Carinthian is already starting to prepare for the 2026 World Cup.
“This nomination means a lot to me. It is confirmation of my performance at the World Cup last year,” says Christian Ofner, looking forward to the upcoming highlight of the year. The 2026 World Cup will be held from May 15th to 31st in Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland. Austria will play its games in Group A in Zurich, where it will face Great Britain, Hungary, Latvia, Switzerland, Germany, Finland and defending champions USA.
Ofner therefore expects to play in Friborg; the announcement will only be made on site shortly before the start of the World Cup. The former defender would like to use his experiences from 2025 to impress as a referee again this year: “The first World Cup nomination is sometimes marked by luck. The fact that I can now go to the World Cup again shows that I was able to convince and can also perform at this level.”
The highlight for him at the 2025 World Cup was the decisive game for Kazakhstan to stay in the league against Switzerland: “Kazakhstan would have needed a point and things looked good until shortly before the end of the game before Switzerland scored the 2-1 winning goal. It was a close and intense game until the end.”
Intensive preparation
On the way to the 2026 World Cup, various online meetings will be held in the coming weeks in which expectations, regulations, organization and much more will be discussed. In addition, Christian Ofner is still fully active in the league. He’s going to the World Cup on May 12th.
Gerhard Schiffauer, ÖEHV Referee in Chief: “After the game management in this year’s CHL final by Pro-Referee Christoph Sternat, this is further proof of the quality of our game officials at international level. We are very pleased with Christian, who has more than earned this nomination.”
www.eishockey.at, Image: BWL / Eisenbauer
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