Finland Head Coach Jukka Jalonen - IIHF

He continued explaining the playing format of the qualification
tournaments together with a proposal for the money distribution for
the participation at the qualification as well as the Olympic tournaments
themselves.
He finished by outlining the importance of coordination between
the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and the MNAs in the process
of obtaining the necessary signatures on the team entry forms. These
completed and signed team entry forms must be submitted to the IIHF
Office by 1 February 2012.
Youth Olympic Winter Games
Werner Margreiter, Head of Sports of the 2012 Youth Olympic Winter
Games (YOG), presented the overall concept.
Innsbruck was expecting 1060 athletes from 13 to 22 January
2012 for the first winter edition of the YOG. The sport program was coordinated
with a cultural and educational program. He finished his presentation
by welcoming all to Innsbruck in 2012.
Ole-Jacob Libaek (norway) asked for clarification of the ranking
system to qualify for the skills test and the Olympic tournament.
Horst Lichtner reconfirmed the decisions taken at the 2010 Semi-Annual
Congress, namely to apply the combined world ranking for selection of
gender by qualified nations until the competition was full while the Skills
Challenge was open to all nations for entry.
Insurance Working Group
The General Secretary began his presentation by giving a brief overview
of the new IIHF insurances. He reported that a special working group had
been created to look into establishing a player support fund for players
who are injured in WM and WM Division I tournaments. He then explained
that an IIHF operations risk assessment had been completed last year and
with current events such as the earthquake in Japan and the changing
sport environment, the IIHF decided to establish three insurances in order
to update the IIHF insurance portfolio (Umbrella, E&O, and Player Support
– excluding health insurance).
Proposals for Changing the Regulations
International Transfer Regulations
Franz Reindl (Germany) spoke about a strong desire from clubs to postpone
the transfer deadline until after the international break in February
rather than 31 January. He explained the main reason for this request was
that there were always players who got injured during the international
breaks and left the clubs with no players since the transfer deadline had
already passed. He specifically asked the IIHF to once again consider postponing
the transfer deadline or maybe for the future have the international
break a week earlier. With respect to this issue, the General Secretary
explained that the date would remain the same, but player injury issues
would be executed in the manner described above.
The Sport Director added that the issue regarding the transfer deadline
had been tabled at the 2010 Annual Congress in Cologne, and it had been
decided to keep the same date. However, he further explained that after
the transfer deadline, if a player was injured during international play, the
IIHF Office was ready to work with the MnA on the replacement of the
player for qualified injuries.
13.3 Disciplinary Regulations
The General Secretary explained that the changes referred to the creation
of an independent disciplinary panel that took away some of the political
decisions. This idea had already been approved by Congress in the past,
and the amendments to the disciplinary regulations were merely to codify
the respective process.
INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION
IIHF Budget for the Year 2011/2012
The General Secretary presented the budget for the 2011-2012 season and
explained the various items.
He especially focused on explaining the decided insurance elements as
well as the new organizational support and team contributions for the
new competition format decided by the Extra-Ordinary Congress. He also
focused on the US Dollar exchange rate to the Swiss Franc and explained
the complex processes regarding the dependence on dollar exchange rate
concerning the IOC money. He ended his presentation by thanking Hockey
Canada as well as the organizers of the 2012/2013 WMs for their substantial
contribution to the upcoming budgets in the next years.
Other Business
Quebec Hockey Summit
Bob Nicholson (Canada) handed over a DVD with the highlights of the
2010 Hockey Summit in Toronto. He invited all interested delegates for a
new summit in Montreal on 26 and 27 August 2011. Further details could
be requested from Hockey Canada.
Junior Club World Championship
Alexander Medvedev, on behalf of the KHL and supported by the Russian
federation, informed Congress that Council had supported this event and
passed the floor to Dmitry Efimov, Managing Director & CEO, Russian
Junior Hockey League, for a brief presentation on this new project.
After the presentation, René Fasel clarified that although this
project was supported by the IIHF, it was not an official IIHF tournament.
Next Congress
The next Congress will be the Semi-Annual Congress in Istanbul, Turkey,
from 22 to 24 September 2011.
Photo by Matthew Manor/HHOF-IIHF Images
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