From January 13 to 16, St Petersburg will be the venue of the ice hockey European Champions Cup competitions. The tournament will see six teams playing - the champions of their countries: Avangard (Omsk, Russia), Zlin (Czech Republic), Karpat (Oulu, Finland), XB-71 (Jonkoping, Sweden), Dukla (Trencin, Slovakia), and Frankfurt Lions (Germany). All the teams are divided into two groups - A (Zlin, Karpat and Frankfurt) and B (Avangard, Dukla and XB-71). Their winners will fight for the main prize of the competitions on January 16.

In the group stage, Russia's 2004 champions will meet on January 13 with Dukla and on January 15, with XB-71.

The tournament, which has been held on and off since 1966, will be organized in this format for the first time. It was formerly won by CSKA Moscow (1969-74, 1976, 1977, 1979-1990) and Krylya Sovetov (1975), as well as Metallurg Magnitogorsk (1999, 2000). After 2000, there was no competition to determine Europe's strongest team.

The Cup winner's purse is 600,000 Swiss francs. Out of the total, 270,000 will go to the winner, 150,000 to the runner-up, and 60,000 each to clubs placed 3rd and 4th and 30,000 each to those ranking 5th and 6th.

As agreed between the International Ice Hockey Federation and the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia, the Cup in 2006 and 2007 will also be challenged in St Petersburg.

News source: www.en.rian.ru
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