The Organising Committee has now opened recruitment for volunteers for the IIHF's flagship tournament for men, who have until September 20 to apply.

The World Championship is is scheduled to begin fewer than three months after the Winter Olympics.

"Volunteers are an irreplaceable part of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships," said Heikki Hietanen, the event’s general secretary.

"It goes well with our Making Miracles theme that volunteers can be called miracle makers, because without them the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship would be impossible to organise.

"I encourage everyone to apply to be a volunteer."

The Organising Committee says volunteers will have "a unique opportunity to experience an international sporting event behind the scenes" and be able to "create new friendships".

Anyone aged 16 or over can apply, and volunteer jobs will relate to matches, ticket sales, security, accreditation, customer service and transporting officials and participants.

"We expect volunteers to be well behaved, friendly, energetic and also have various language skills," added an Organising Committee release.

All selected volunteers will be informed about upcoming training by the end of 2021.

The first training session for the volunteers will be held in Tampere on January 15 and during the spring of 2022 there will be between one and three further training stints.

Volunteer tasks will start from May 1, but the majority are related to the duration of the World Championship so every volunteer must be prepared to be available from May 13 to 29.