From June 9 to 11, 2023, the traditional tournament "Airport Trophy" will again take place in Kloten. This year's edition comes up with some changes.
After two years of corona-related interruptions, the Airport Trophy finally took place again last June in Kloten's Ruebisbach Hall. In front of a great crowd, the U20 national teams of the top nations Germany, France and Spain as well as the host Switzerland fought for the tournament victory.
For this year's edition, preparations in Kloten are already in full swing. The field of participants is now known. In addition to Switzerland, the guest teams in 2023 will be Germany, Poland and Montenegro. The tournament will also be contested by the U19 teams this year. The reason for this is that the time window between the end of regular league play and the start of the U21 World Cup is too narrow, which does not allow the teams to come to Kloten in June.
For Switzerland, the selection of Marco Lüthi and Nico Peter will compete, which qualified for the U20 European Championship 2024 thanks to the final qualification last August at the M18 Championships in Latvia. By participating in the Airport Trophy, this team will be able to measure itself against strong teams already one year before this highlight. Germany and Montenegro are using this year's Airport Trophy as preparation for the U19 World Championship in Croatia, which will take place in August.