“To defend the most vulnerable”

Moscow yesterday was the venue for the creation of a new trade union for professional hockey coaches working in the KHL.

The union was set up at a conference attended by Igor Zhilinsky, the head of the KHL’s coaching department, plus coaches from Ak Bars, Sibir, Amur, CSKA and Spartak, and among the subjects under discussion were the standard forms and guarantees of coaches’ contracts, social packages for coaches and the creation of a coaches’ council.

Afterwards, Igor Zhilinsky and players’ union boss Andrei Kovalenko emerged to announce the success of the proceedings.

Igor Zhilinsky: “The idea of a coaches’ union has been around for a while, and we’ve finally made it official today. I should mention that most of the coaches have already joined. Our organization’s main goal is to defend the rights of the coaches working with professional teams and improve the material and technical base of their work. I am sad to say that those in the coaching profession are among the most vulnerable in our hockey.”

Andrei Kovalenko: “We are starting with coaches from the KHL, but if the desire to join our union spreads to the VHL (lower league) or MHL (youth league), then we will always be ready to help. In the long term our aim is to reach every team in the KHL system, along the same lines as our work with the players.”