At the annual meeting of the IIHF Continental Cup, held via video conference, it was agreed to expand the group stage which determines the finalists in November from two to four groups.

The four group winners will go forward to the final tournament, which is due to be held from January 8 to 10 2021.

Play is due to get underway with a qualifying stage from October 16 to 18.

This is pending formal approval by the 2020 IIHF Extraordinary Congress later this week.

The tournaments from November 13 to 15 will be hosted by Amiens in France, Asiago in Italy, Ljubljana in Slovenia and Frederikshavn in Denmark.

The two initial qualifier groups will take place in Akureyri in Iceland and the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.

The Amiens group will consist of home side Amiens Gothiques, Yertis Pavlodar of Kazakhstan, Hungary’s Ferencvarosi TC and a second-placed qualifier.

Asiago Hockey will host the Italian group, meeting Britain’s Sheffield Steelers, Club TBD of Ukraine and a qualifying group runner-up.

The hosts in Slovenia will be Olimpija Ljubljana, who will meet Shakhtyor Soligorsk of Belarus, Latvia’s Olimp Riga and one of the qualifying group winners.

White Hawks are the Danish hosts, and will play against Unia Oswiecim of Poland, Romania’s SC Miercurea Ciuc and the second qualifying group winner.

The 2020/2021 IIHF Continental Cup includes 20 teams from 20 countries.

Most of them are either national champions or were in first place when the season was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The teams come from all across Europe except for the six founding leagues of the Champions Hockey League.

The clubs will not only battle for the Continental Cup winners’ plate but also for an invitation to play in the Champions Hockey League the following season, pending formal approval by the CHL Board.

Last winter, SonderjyskE Vojens became the first Continental Cup champion from Denmark.