The Russian bandy federation has now decided that the Russian final of Super League Play Offs will be settled in a single match and not as before in the best of three matches. This means that the Russian finals will now be settled in the same way as the finals in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Having one final match has been great successes in these countries, not least in Sweden where the latest final had an audience of 18 667 people. A single Russian final match will surely get a similar interest from the audience.
-The team’s supporters did not experience the excitement that a final deserves when the teams were forced to win two matches, said Russian Bandy Federation Chairman Boris Skrynnik to the federation’s website.
-In the current realities, a series of up to three games is hard, both in terms of physics, and financially for clubs, Skrynnik says further.
The last Russian final was played between SKA Neftyanik from Khabarovsk and Dynamo Moscow. The distance between the two cities is more than 6100 kilometers and brings costs when final games are played in each city.
Quarter finals and semi finals will now be decided by one team winning two matches of a maximum of three. The bronze match is settled in two matches.