India Hockey Federation puts conditions

The India Hockey Federation (IHF) has requested the sports ministry to reinstate them as the sole governing body in the country and also expressed unwillingness to merge under the name of Hockey India (HI), sources told DNA on Tuesday.

The IHF, who had asked for a week’s extension to the original June 14 deadline set by the ministry, submitted its reply over the proposal to merge with HI on Tuesday. It is learnt that they have stated that the proposal is pro-HI and, hence, have suggested a few changes. “In principal, we have accepted the idea to merge and form a single governing body. But the general feeling is that the ministry’s proposal favours HI more,” an IHF official said. “The first thing we want is to change the name of the federation. We cannot run under HI’s name.”

IHF has also raised concerns over the existence of the state associations.