Today the office of the Federation of Russian Hockey has held press-conference on the 10th Russian championship starting on Monday, says SE correspondent Vladimir JURIN. The new season will bring a number of innovations aimed at improving the process of conducting championships.

For the better promotion of Bandy each club should establish a press-service before January, 1st, 2002. The Federation of Russian Hockey will start creation of its official web-site.

Starting from this season there will be introduced a Controlling Institute to serve the matches of the major league. Appointment of the controllers as well as the judges will be computer-based.

Another mandatory requirement - videotape recording of the matches: henceforth no appeal is to be considered without providing it.

A decision was adopted on creating the security committee; its main task will be to maintain order in the stadiums, especially in the ones seating large number of people: in Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk and Pervouralsk.

It was stated on the press-conference that owing to the absence of ice in Abakan and Bratsk the Bureau of the Federation of Russian Hockey executive committee has decided to hold the matches Sajani - Junost and Metallurg - Sibselmash on November, 22 in Krasnoyarsk.