IOA panel backs Hockey India

The three-member Indian Olympic Association (IOA) committee has backed Hockey India (HI) to be the central authority to run the sport in the country.

The IOA committee, comprising Wrestling Federation of India president GS Mander, Indian Weightlifting Federation president Birendra Prasad Baishya and Handball Federation of India secretary-general SM Bali, was formed to resolve the long running feud between HI and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) over who should be taking the charge of the sport in India.

The committee, formed under the directive of the International Hockey Federation (FIH),  submitted a 24-page report on Wednesday to the IOA after going through their written submissions.

They also had a personal meeting scheduled with two parties. While HI president Narendra Batra met the committee on August 27, none of the IHF representative turned up despite being given a two-day extension. The IHF had reservations against the committee.  “HI fully qualifies to be the central authority to run the sport in the country. It was a unanimous decision. We have submitted our report to the IOA and the FIH,” said Mander, who was the chairman of the committee.

Mander also rebuffed the objection of the IHF. “The IHF wrote to the FIH and the IOA that their fight was against the IOA and they don’t have faith in a committee which has been formed by the IOA. We wrote back saying under a Supreme Court decision an in-house committee can be set up by the management, like in the case of Lalit Modi and the BCCI,” he said. The fact that the HI is a unified body for men’s and women hockey worked in its favour while the IHF despite repeated requests failed to do so.

“We have concerns with regard to whether the IHF is a representative of hockey for women,” the committee report said. Also, the IHF did not organise any national championships for senior men from 2001-2004 and also from 2007-2009. The IHF reasoned it by stating that it shifted its focus from the senior to junior to nurture talent.

“We find that failure to organise a tournament in every age category of senior, junior or sub-junior on annual basis is a breach of article XXVII(a) of the IOA constitution. Hence we find that there is a lack of consistency in the approach of the IHF in organising national championships and other events,” the committee report said.
Also, the IHF did not file information with regard to its plans for the forthcoming year, as it feared sabotage of events.

 HI, on the other hand, has provided detailed schedules for future events in the upcoming year, including dates and venues of the proposed tournaments.