The 5th Men´s U19 WFC will start on Wednesday in Turku & Raisio, Finland. The U19 WFC is played with 16 teams, eight teams in the A- and B-division.

A record amount of teams registered for these championships as the qualification, played in September 2008 in Hungary, was played with six teams (compared to four teams in 2007).The two best teams in the U19 Qualification, Russia and Hungary are qualified to these Championships B-division.

Team Canada will play for the first time ever in an Under 19 Championship context. The other out of European team is Japan, which has participated since the 2nd Men´s U19 Championships in 2003.

A-division teams according to ranking:

1. Sweden
2. Czech Republic
3. Finland
4. Switzerland
5. Latvia
6. Norway
7. Slovakia
8. Denmark (promoted to A-division for 2009)

From the team links you can see the rosters.

B-division teams according to ranking:

1. Poland (relegated to B-division for 2009)
2. Germany
3. Estonia
4. Austria
5. Russia
6. Hungary
7. Japan *
8. Canada *

* = Asian and American teams automatically qualified.

The 8th placed team of the A-division will be relegated to the WFC B-division 2011 and the winner of the B-division will be promoted to the A-division 2011. The teams placed 1st – 12th are qualified for the WFC A- and B-division 2011.

Further information about the championships, tickets, schedule and news found on the official 2009 U19 web page