FÜSSEN, GERMANY -- Le Gruyère European Curling Championships 2007 will host a record number of teams when competition begins December 1 in this Bavarian town.

55 teams from 32 countries -- 30 men's squads and 22 women's teams -- will compete in two divisions, A and B, at both the Bundesleistungszentrum Arena and the adjacent Bundesstützpunkt Arena.

In addition to gold, silver and bronze-medal honours, the A division rewards the top eight men's and women's finishers with a berth in the World Curling Championships in March and April 2008. The B division, which includes a men's team from Iceland in their debut appearance, awards the top men's and women's team the chance to challenge the eighth-place A finishers for the final world berth.

Points awarded at the Worlds qualify their nations for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

"The Le Gruyère European Curling Championships 2007 are a critical showcase of high-performance curling and a key stepping stone towards Olympic qualification," said Les Harrison, World Curling Federation (WCF) President.

"We congratulate the European Curling Federation and the Füssen host committee on all the work they have done to prepare for this massive event."

Last year in Basel, Switzerland, Russia stunned the curling world by capturing the Le Gruyère European Curling Championships 2006 women's title, defeating Italy in the final. In men's competition, Switzerland won their first European Championship in 22 years by defeating Scotland in the final.

In partnership with the pan-European multilingual sports TV channel Eurosport, Eurosport.com and CurlTV.com, curling fans from around the world will be able to watch a record number of hours of coverage, beginning on December 1 and ending with the men's and women's championship finals on December 8.

For the first time, live webstreamed game coverage will be available on Eurosport.com and CurlTV.com, in addition to the matches broadcast on the Eurosport television channel.

World Curling Federation will provide daily coverage updates from Le Gruyère European Curling Championships 2007 to working sport media in text, still image and video-highlight formats. In addition to video highlight footage, World Curling Television (WCTV) can provide the live game coverage feed to interested broadcasters.

Previews of the A division teams will be sent in the next few days.

For more information including team lineups, please visit the Le Gruyère European Curling Championships 2007 website at: www.ecc2007.de

To view the World Curling Rankings and other curling information, please visit the World Curling Federation website at: www.worldcurling.org