The formal decision to select the host of the 2020 World Championship Division I will be made in Bratislava on Friday, but it is already clear that this will be Slovenia as the country has remained the only candidate.

The national ice hockey federation expressed the intention to organise the tournament for Group A immediately after the end of this year's second-tier world championship in Kazakhstan at the beginning of May.

Up until today, Romania's Bucharest was the other candidate to host the event, but the country has withdrawn as there is an unwritten rule that countries which have only made it to a certain tier usually do not host a tournament next year.

Like in 2010, the tournament will be held in Ljubljana's Stožice Arena. The date of the event will be determined at Friday's congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

Slovenia will be competing against South Korea and Hungary, which have also remained in the second tier after the tournament in Kazakhstan, as well as the newcomer Romania, and Austria and France, which have been relegated from the elite group.