The 2011 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, presented by Richardson, will be held in Regina, April 2-10.
The 12 country competition will be played at Evraz Place in the Brandt Centre. It's the third time that a world men's curling championship has been held in Regina.
In 1973, it was won by Sweden's Kjell Oscarius, while in 1983, host Canada, skipped by Ed Werenich, prevailed.
China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Korea, Germany, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, USA and host Canada have qualified for this year's championship.
The format for the Ford World Men's is a round robin amongst the 12 nations, with the top four teams advancing to the Page Playoff system, whereby the first and second teams meet in the one versus two game, with the winner going to the final. The loser goes to the semi-final to meet the winner of the three versus four game in order to determine the other finalist.
The bronze medal game pairs the semi-final loser against the loser of the three versus four game.
Television coverage of the Ford World Men's will be extensive, both nationally and internationally, by TSN and WCTV, the television arm of the World Curling Federation.
In Canada, TSN will televise all Canada games plus the playoffs.
WCTV will provide live game feeds and highlights to Eurosport and other international networks.
The world men's championship, known initially as the Scotch Cup, began in 1959 in Scotland and was contested there for the first five years.
In 1964, it was held in Canada for the first time in Calgary.
The men's and women's (which began in 1979) championships were conducted separately until 1989, when both were combined for the first time in Mil-waukee, Wis-con-sin and remained so through 2004.
During that time, Canada first hosted the joint championships in 1991 in Winnipeg, followed by five Ford World Men's and Women's Curling Champion-ships (Brandon, 1995; Hamilton, 1996; Kamloops, 1998; Saint John, 1999 and Winnipeg, 2003).
Beginning in 2005, when the men's and women's world championships were separated once again, the Canadian Curling Association agreed to alternately stage a men's and women's event in Canada each year.
In addition, 12 countries, instead of the former 10, participated and the page playoff format was adopted.
Since then, the Ford World Men's has been held in Canada in Victoria (2005), Edmonton (2007) and Moncton (2009), while the Ford World Women's was staged in 2006 in Grande Prairie, Alberta, in 2008 in Vernon, British Columbia and last year in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, when won by Germany's Andrea Schöpp.
Canada, whose representative will be determined at the upcoming Tim Horton's Brier in London, March 5-13, has won a leading 32 men's world titles since 1959, the latest by Alberta's Kevin Koe in 2010 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
Scotland and Sweden are next with five, followed by the United States with four.
Edmonton holds the attendance record for a men's only event - 184,970, set in 2007.
Norway's Eigil Ramsfjell owns the men's record for the most world curling championship appearances with 15. Ernie Richardson, Arnold Richardson, Garnet Richardson and Randy Ferbey are the only four-time winners.
Ferbey skipped Canada to victory on three occasions (2002, 2003 and 2005) and also played third for Pat Ryan in 1989.
Regina's Ernie Richardson is the only skip to have won four world men's titles (1959, 1960, 1962, 1963).
The Ford Motor Company of Canada began its involvement as title sponsor of the world curling championships in 1995 in Brandon, Mani-toba.
This marks the 17th year of title sponsorship by Ford of Canada.
