Negre wants to make hockey more exciting

Assuring to cater to the need of the younger generation and make hockey a global sport, the president of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Leandro Negre said that the world body was keen on creating a product that would make the game more interesting and entertaining.

“We need a very exciting and nice product and in the last few years we have started to work on that front,” said Negre who is in Raipur for the Hockey World League Finals.

“The Hockey World League is a big example to what we are trying to do. Here the tournament gives opportunities to everybody. We want to take competitive hockey to all the 160 countries in the world and not just restrict it to the top six countries. Moreover, more people come to watch top teams in action and especially in places like Raipur and Antwerp, it’s a big thing,” he added.

Admitting that it was necessary to attract the younger generation to the game, Negre said that the federation was looking at ways to tap the youngsters through social media.

“Social media is playing a huge role in taking the game to the youngsters. We are trying to generate millions of followers in the world through communications and the social media,” he remarked.

Apart from the Hockey World League, Hockey 5s is another product that the FIH has rolled out during Negre’s tenure. And Negre hopes that the fast and action-packed version of the game, which was a part of the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, will yield their cause. “I am very happy with the way the sport has grown over the last few years. Hockey 5s was introduced at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing and it was a great success. Even the IOC chief Thomas Bach too liked it. It will continue in the next Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires too,” he said.