Next VHL is born

It was another lively summer for VHL: right after the awards night many club have to deal with a difficult economic situation: Rubin Tyumen was at the verge of exclusion but at the last gasp have found the necessary funds to play in next season. Different fate for two historic clubs of the Russian hockey: Dizel Penza and HK Lipetsk won't be at the starting line, even if Dizel published a note on the website at the beginning of May reassuring the fans about the future of the club in VHL despite wages problems affecting the team during all the season. But today  VHL Managing Director German Skoropupov confirmed to newspaper R-Sport the two clubs are out. Dizel will preserve the licence in the league, aiming to comeback in 2016-17 season. Lipetsk, defined by Skoropopov "a problematic club" since the end of last season, with players and staff have not been paid since February, found an agreement with local authorities to preserve the junior activities in return for giving up the senior team. "Keep a professional team in the VHL is very expensive for the budget of the region - said Deputy Head of Administration of Lipetsk Region Yuri Taran - With the same amount we can feed five youth sports schools". If club accepts to close the senior team, the regional administration is ready to allocate 20 million rubles: an obvious choice.

The future of Kuban Krasnodar, the third of the problematic trio, is still pending: "We leave the door open for Kuban - said Skoropupov - even though we passed the deadline: the situation the club is changing almost every day, there is still hope"

If two cars left the convoy,  three teams will enter in next season, all from Moscow area: Zvezda Chekhov, as reported earlier will be the CSKA Moscow farm-team, Zvedza-VDV Dmitrov and the comeback of Khimik Voskresensk, one of the best hockey school of the country, in last seasons active just at junior level. CSK VVS Samara applied to join the league but, after a visit at the Ice Palace, the club has not passed the requirements of the regulations. has not passed the requirements of the regulations."Samara won't partecipate in the league for technical regulations, - explained Skoropupov.- Although they presented a schedule for repair of the palace, failed to convince the league that will have time to do everything for the beginning of the season."

Also Kristall Saratov expressed an interest to join VHL, but didn't apply officially and apparently the club still has much work to do to reach the required standards.

From abroad, Serbian club HK Partizan Beograd officially submit the application to join the VHL but too late to perform the necessary procedure for admission of new clubs. "We were approached by Partizan, they sent the documents, but they are a little bit late, because we have a whole procedure for admission of new clubs, especially foreign ones. Firstly the VHL receive and examine documents from the club, to ensure compliance on all important issues that really a club with serious intentions has to fulfill: stable funds and an adequate arena. If the league concludes that the club worthy, the General Meeting will have the last word. It's works for any club, "- explained Skoropupov. "We do not have time to do all these procedures for Partizan and did not have time because they are applied to us very late. Rather, this work will be carried out during the coming season, and next season we will consider and make the decision. We'll see how serious Serbian team is. Rather they will play in the league next season "- said Skoropupov, stressing that the question of partecipation of foreign clubs requires a special attention: "We have to approach it very carefully. We have to understand how much we need foreign clubs in the league, it's a big issue that will be decided after consultation."

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