With 20 weeks to go until the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Moscow and St. Petersburg and the anticipation to host the best 16 hockey nations in the world rising, international ice hockey will be more present than ever on VK (from Russian “v kontakte”, or “in contact”, “in touch”). The IIHF page will include updates from the International Ice Hockey Federation, its marketing partner Infront Sports & Media and the Organizing Committee of the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, providing news on the event in the run-up to the Worlds on vk.com/iihfhockey.

During the event fans at the arena and at home will be able to access the newest stories and information from the venues, great photos from in and around the arenas, videos from the games and behind the scenes, live video chats with players and more during the biggest annual winter sports event.

“With the launch of the VK channel we continue our path of growth in the digital media area and make content from our premier event more accessible for fans in Eastern Europe following the substantial growth we experienced worldwide during the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in the Czech Republic,” says IIHF President Rene Fasel.

“We know how passionate and knowledgeable fans in Russia and other countries in Eastern Europe are about hockey, and we are looking forward to providing them with more and better material in their native language on VK.”

VK is the most visited website in Eastern Europe. It has over 75 million average daily users and with more than 300 million registered accounts it is the most used social-media platform in Russia and other CIS countries such as Belarus and Kazakhstan, both of which will be represented at the World Championship as well.

“Hockey continues to be a significant and growing sport in Russia. We are pleased to have a community of such a prestigious international organization on VK. It will provide an opportunity to remain up to date with all of the latest hockey news, and be involved in the worldwide community,” says VK CEO Boris Dobrodeev.

The channel was launched on the day Moscow’s newly-built Ice Palace will host its first international ice hockey tournament when the Euro Hockey Tour comes to Russia this week for the Channel One Cup. The traditional Four Nations Tournament includes the national teams from the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden, who will test their form with less than five months to go before the Worlds.

Join us now in our social media channels to get the recent news and videos from the upcoming events such as the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship that starts in nine days in Helsinki. Subscribe today to our services on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and now also on VK.com.