Due to health concerns and travel restrictions, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Council has agreed to postpone the three Final Olympic Qualification Tournaments which were due to take place between August 27 and 30 this year.

New dates of August 26 to 29, 2021 have been set for the three events in Bratislava, Riga and an unnamed city in Norway.

It means the men's Olympic groups for Beijing 2022 will not be finalised until these tournaments have concluded and teams have qualified.

The postponement still requires approval from the International Olympic Committee, with the decision being made by the IIHF during a conference call.

It affects 12 teams hoping to qualify from the three events, with hosts Slovakia, Belarus, Austria and Poland in Group D in Bratislava. 

Hosts Latvia, France, Italy and Hungary are in Group E in Riga and Norway will host Group F with Denmark, South Korea and Slovenia.

Only the winners of each group will book a Beijing 2022 place.

IIHF President René Fasel said it is lucky there is currently enough space on the calendar to postpone the events.

"We are fortunate that we still have some time to play these tournaments, and so that a move to August 2021 will still allow these teams to be able to ice their best players," he said.

In the same meeting, the IIHF Council approved the initial proposal to hold the IIHF Annual Congress virtually with a provisional date of June 10.

It usually falls on the final days of the IIHF World Championship, but, due to the suspension of sport globally, it will move online.

This year's IIHF Men's World Championship would have been held in Switzerland between tomorrow and May 24.

There are more than 3.83 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, resulting in the deaths of over 265,000 people.

The final qualification tournaments for the women's ice hockey at Beijing 2022 remain scheduled for February.