The IIHF congress has confirmed new ice hockey rules

Starting from the upcoming 2021/2022 campaign, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has approved new rules for the game of ice hockey, which have become the same for all leagues in the world. In order to develop these rules, a special working group was created, which included representatives of the IIHF, professional leagues in Europe and North America and the RIHF refereeing department.

Mikhail Karpushin, head of the RIHF refereeing department:

- It's great that in the new season there will be uniform rules for ice hockey, including domestic leagues across the world as well as the World Championship and the Olympic Games. This will help everyone: the referees, players and coaches. I would like to note that in May 2019, during the World Championship in Slovakia, on the joint initiative of the RIHF and the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), the first working meeting on the unified rulebook was held. Our initiative subsequently received the approval and support of IIHF President Rene Fasel, and this project eventually came true. In the near future, we expect the IIHF to finalize the new rulebook, since in the off-season there is a lot of work to adapt to our competitions. Moreover, we can confidently say that it will be a smooth process here, as the refereeing standard in Russian ice hockey is very close to the new standard adopted by the IIHF.