FIH showers tournaments on India, eyes Brazil

NEW DELHI: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has awarded India several elite events, including an IPL cricket-style professional league, and pledged to raise the game’s profile in soccer-dominated Brazil.

FIH president Leandro Negre said on Wednesday that India had shown its organisational skills with the successful 2010 men’s World Cup in Delhi, convincing the world governing body to allocate new tournaments to a country that won eight Olympic gold medals before their spectacular and prolonged slump.

“We have a long-term commitment to host major events here. Three to four years back, we identified India as a key country and we are here to allocate five top events to the country,” Negre told reporters.

Apart from the men’s Champions Trophy in December, India will host men’s and women’s Olympic qualifiers in 2012, men’s and women’s junior World Cups and World League Finals in 2013 and the women’s Champions Trophy in 2014.

The FIH is also working with Hockey India to start a professional league, modelled to some extent on the highly successful Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket competition, possibly from 2012, Negre said.

FIH officials declared Hockey India as the sole recognised federation to run the game in the country and warned players not to compete in a rebel league backed by the Indian Hockey Federation, which forfeited FIH recognition in 2008.

Negre said Pakistan would receive a wild card to participate in this year’s Champions Trophy in Delhi.

The FIH also announced ‘Project Brazil’, which aims to raise the game’s profile in the South American country.

“Brazil is a major sporting nation, one of the bigger economies which will host the 2016 Olympic Games. Hockey is not particularly strong there to be honest,” FIH chief executive Kelly Fairweather said.