The expert group, which met in Zurich, has been tasked with helping to organise 43 IIHF tournaments in the upcoming season, which will be held by 31 different member associations.

The IIHF said it has established minimum pre-event cornerstone Championships, which will include the expert group evaluating the feasibility of the event three months prior to competition.

At least four teams must participate in the tournament - except top divisions, Olympic qualification and Continental Cup events.

Special rules for team seeding will be agreed for the 2022 season in case of withdrawals, while hosts must comply with IIHF COVID-19 recommendations on organising and participating in events.

The expert group will analyse and evaluate the playing status of all tournaments and provide the IIHF Council with recommendations.

The group will be supported by the IIHF Office and its event department, which has produced an event status tracker.

The tracker contains up-to-date information on the ability of each hosts to hold the tournament, including the country’s COVID-19 situation, local Government regulations concerning travel and contact sports, and travel restrictions for participating teams.

"We had to cancel 19 tournament last season, and we thought that in the summer things would start to cool down, but that is not the case," said René Fasel, IIHF President in a welcome address to the expert group.

"When the 2020 IIHF Extra-Ordinary Congress decided two-and-a-half months ago that we were going to attempt to play the whole number of tournaments in a normal season, it was the same thinking there.

"But we also decided that we needed to have a way to evaluate how safe we can proceed with a full schedule.

"At this point, you have to convince me to play, don’t try to convince me not to play because this is not our starting position, our priority is the health and safety of everyone that is coming to the IIHF tournament.

"Health, financial costs, government regulations, legal liability, we have four different battlefields that we need to manage to proceed into this season.

"There are risks we simply cannot take if they are too high, but we owe it to our membership to carefully analyse our options."

The IIHF expert group have an operations room, which has been established in the IIHF museum.

The first meeting saw recommendations produced for the IIHF Continental Cup.

The IIHF said these will be presented to the IIHF Council during a conference call on Monday (August 24).