Finland’s Pauli Maronen secured the winning design with a medal featuring the new Deck Arena on one side and a hockey player on the other.

The venue in Tampere is set to be completed in December ahead of the IIHF’s flagship event, scheduled to take place from May 13 to 29 next year.

As well as hosting all the Group B matches, the Deck Arena is set to stage two quarter-finals, both semi-finals, the bronze-medal match and the final.

The Helsinki Arena in Helsinki is also due to host Group A fixtures along with two quarter-finals.

About 70 different medal proposals were submitted after the design competition was opened in January, with entries coming from Finland, Estonia, Britain, New Zealand, Russia, Belarus, Canada, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Indonesia and Italy, according to the IIHF.

"Instead of the usual round shape of the medal, I wanted to do something more special, so I created an octagonal shape for the medal," said Maronen.

The winner was chosen by the competition jury, chaired by IIHF vice-president Kalervo Kummola.

"It’s been a long time since Tampere has hosted the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship and the games will be played in the brand new arena," said Kummola.

"Tampere Deck Arena is such a significant thing both domestically and internationally so it’s great that it’s included in the medal."

Defending champions Canada headline Group A which also contains ROC, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark Kazakhstan and Italy.

Group B features hosts Finland along with the United States, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Latvia, Norway, Belarus and Britain.

Canada will hope to retain the title after beating Finland 3-2 in overtime in the final of this year’s World Championship.