The RIHF board's end of season meeting

In Moscow, the end of season Russian Ice Hockey Federation's board gathering took place inside the Russian Ice Hockey Museum.

The meeting included rounding up national teams' results, approval of the RIHF's activity plans, system reforms for refereeing, criteria for the selection of athletes for the national team, the Disciplinary Regulation policy for the RIHF, the RIHF code of ethics and the Disciplinary and Appeal Committees.

Upon the end of the 2015/2016 campaign, the RIHF's board set out the next working directions for the federation:

- The federation have set up a record number of children's tournaments, a students' league has been set up;

- The VHL and MHL B will run under the auspices of the RIHF;

- A national program for the the certification of ice hockey coaches;

- The scientific and methodical department of the RIHF has begun working over the program for developing ice hockey players and for the creation of a national register which will hold the details of coaches and ice hockey school students;

- During a minimal amount of time, the RIHF was completely rebranded. The new "Red Machine' and 'Rebranded' brands were created. For the first time in history, the RIHF had a title sponsor  - ALROSA. At the 2016 World Championship, there were three official fan-zones (two in Moscow, one in Saint Petersburg), and they were attended by 1.8 million fans. 43 million people watched the Russian national team on television. Also, "Red Machine" shops were open, as well as an online store.

The sporting results of the national teams have been deemed as satisfactory. The men's national team took bronze at their World Championship, the youth team came second, the women's side came third and the Youth Olympics team won a bronze medal. The introduced video system is a program for communication and the viewing of videos online, and a united game model has been created for all national teams at their base.

At the meeting, the board discussed the issue of refereeing. A decision was taken to create a working group made up of RIHF and KHL specialists for the approval of proposed measures.

The board confirmed the Disciplinary Regulations of the RIHF. Also, a code of ethics will be created - this will be a single document which will regulate the behaviour of all competitors for all tournaments which are run under the auspices of the federation. Also, the Disciplinary and Appeal Committees' compositions were approved.

RIHF board chairman Arkady Rotenberg:

- The board meeting has been positive. During this time, we have not only summed up this past season, but also drawn up plans for the next. In all of our directions, we will continue to work productively. Our goals have stayed the same: to make ice hockey accessible, to popularize the sport, improve our players' progress, and to prepare our national teams for the upcoming season and in the long term for the 2018 Olympic Games.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation