The decision was made at the seventh CHL General Assembly, held both remotely and in the Swiss city of Zug.

It was decided to reduce the number of teams to 34 following the five-year extension of the partnership between the CHL and sports marketing company Infront.

"The CHL Board had negotiated the new contract with Infront under such a precondition, as a reduction in teams will create a higher-quality on-ice product and more exclusivity," said CHL President Peter Zahner.

"This will also lead to greater financial compensation for the teams involved.

"Our shareholders showed that they have the big picture in mind and are keen to take the next step with our product, as a strong CHL benefits everyone."

The reduction will only take effect when the new Infront contract starts for the 2023-24 season.

From then onwards, the 24 teams must represent a minimum of 12 national leagues, and one national league cannot be represented by more than four teams.  

During the meeting, CHL chief executive Martin Baumann presented the league’s annual financial statement to shareholders.

"On the financial side, I’m happy to report a pleasing company result for 2019-20 even though the CHF/EUR situation totally worked against us and our profits were reduced by massive exchange losses," Baumann said. 

"Thanks to our very efficient cost management, we still made a small net profit which is not par for the course during challenging times."

This season's CHL has been pushed back to October and is now a knockout only competition due to the coronavirus pandemic.