Need to make int’l hockey more inclusive, says FIH prez

Rourkela, January 15

New FIH president Mohammad Tayyab Ikram feels the biggest challenge of his two-year term will be to make international hockey more inclusive.

“We have 140 members and my first priority is to make sure that FIH is relevant to all those countries,” he said.

For that, the international federation is reviewing its “event portfolio”, Ikram said. “I see that there are a lot of questions about how we used to have lots of teams in the World Series and World League like Fiji, Italy and Belarus. Those teams would like to come back to play FIH tournaments,” he said.

Ikram added that though the tournament window is very congested, due to Pro League and Nations Cup, FIH is open to proposals for new tournaments.

“We had a proposal from Hockey India about another tournament, even from the Odisha government,” he said.

However, he added that FIH was not thinking about bringing the historic Champions Trophy back.

Ikram said that the other issue weighing on his mind is to help the athletes find more career opportunities through hockey as it is an amateur sport. “If we can train them in other skills so that it helps them find more career opportunities in the future it will benefit our athletes,” he said.

Return of HIL?

Asked if there were talks over the return of the Hockey India League, Ikram said there has been some discussion about it. “There is already some discussion to find the window. But there has not yet been a formal proposal from Hockey India. Let’s see,” he said.