Meeting of the Council of the Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg took place on the 27th of May 2011. The following statements and decisions were accepted in consideration of the existing situation in international and Russian table hockey.1) The Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg deprecates cancellation of ANNUAL largest international tournaments and supports either maintenance of usual order (even year – European Championship, odd year – World Championship) or conduct annual World Championship.
2) Saint-Petersburg announces the readiness to conduct Team World Championship-2012 on the 13th of May 2012 with the prize fund in five thousands (5000) euro in case if Executive Committee will allow to move Saint-Petersburg Open on the 12th of November 2011 from the 13th of May 2012 in view of exceptionality of the situation;
3) The Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg continues to organize and conduct the series of tournaments under general name "Saint-Petersburg Masters", the foundations of which was laid in a season 2010/2011. Conditions of holding of the series of tournaments as in former times would be defined by the Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg. The main regulation of holding of the series of tournaments "Saint-Petersburg Masters" would be announced later, but already now the Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg is able to announce:
3a) Starting from 2012/2013 season, the series of tournaments "Saint-Petersburg Masters" would take into account not only Russian tournaments, but also stages of World Tour series;
3b) Final tournament of Masters will take place in Saint-Petersburg on the 12th of May 2012;
3c) Claimed prize fund of the final tournament is not less than five thousands (5000) euro;
The Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg also asks ITHF to examine a question about awarding of the 2nd category to the Final tournament of Masters.
4) In connection with complicated political situation in Russian table hockey the Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg asks ITHF to give in overall management four from the 13 tournaments of the 4th category belonging to Russia.
Reference: The Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg is a founder of table hockey in Russia. At the present time it is one of the leaders of the development of table hockey in the world. It conducts about 100 tournaments per year, including Saint-Petersburg Open (the stage of World Tour) and Saint-Petersburg Masters. It has close relationships with mass media of Russia, publishes colour magazine, weekly Internet newspaper, conducts high-quality video broadcasts of the tournaments. In Top-100 of the world rating there are 14 players from Saint-Petersburg. In whole in the world rating there are approximately 200 players from Saint-Petersburg. In Top-5 of the junior world rating there are 4 young players from Saint-Petersburg (Oleg Dmitrichenko, Maxim Borisov, Pavel Gorodnitskiy, Maria Yalbacheva).
Yours faithfully,
Andrey Voskoboynikov (President of the Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg)
Vitaly Skorobogatov (First Vice-President of the Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg)
Mark Gorodnitskiy (Vice-President on financial development of the Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg)
Kirill Storchak (Vice-President on public relations of the Table Hockey Federation of Saint-Petersburg)
Русская версия пресс-релиза
