The Ice Hockey World Championship is due to start on 17 April

Great Britain will face the Netherlands in two warm-up matches ahead of the World Championships in Slovenia.

Nottingham and Sheffield have been confirmed as the venues for the matches on 10 and 11 April.

"It's fantastic for both teams' preparations," said Great Britain coach Paul Thompson.

Team GB, who won bronze in last year's tournament, will play their first world championship match against Croatia on 17 April.

The World Championship has a complex format with the teams divided into four divisions - Championship Division, Division One, Division Two and Division Three - based on past performance and world rankings, with each division then split into sub-groups.

In the Championship, which will take place in Germany, the teams play in four round-robin groups, which eventually lead to quarter-finals, semi-finals and eventually the playoffs for bronze medal and the final to decide the gold.

In the top tier, there is also a special relegation round where the four teams that place last in each group play each other to determine which two teams will move down a division.

Team GB will play in Group B of Division One in Llubljana, which also includes Croatia, Hungary, South Korea, Poland and hosts Slovenia, and will hope to win promotion into the Championship for the next tournament in 2011.

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