IHF, HI merger in a limbo

M.S. Unnikrishnan

The proposed merger of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and Hockey India (HI) seems to have gone into limbo as former IHF president K.P.S. Gill asserted here today that “the merger cannot take place unless some corrupt people in HI are removed”.

“IHF will accept the merger proposal only without the corrupt and the conspirators,” he emphasised. He said IHF had not set any deadline for the merger, implying that the uncertainty could prolong and the ball was now in the Government’s court. “We have not given any deadline,” he repeated.

Gill, accompanied by former IHF secretary Jothikumaran, Women’s Hockey Federation of India secretary Amrit Bose and present IHF secretary Ashok Mathur, detailed to the media various reasons and made serious charges against HI, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the Sports Ministry, which had proposed the merger.

Sports Minister Ajay Maken had suggested the merger of the bodies for the smooth conduct of the game, and warned of stern steps if the IHF and HI did not relent. But Gill made light of Maken’s threat.

“Hockey can survive without Government support,” he noted. The Supercop said: “Though we don’t want any dispute to continue, we want the merger to take place under certain agreed principles.”

He said HI was an untenable body, formed by seven members who had noremote link with the game. With tongue-in-cheek remarks, Gill reeled out their names: Vidya Stokes (‘who never held a hockey stick’), A.K. Mattoo (from the boxing federation ‘who never boxed’), Harish Sharma (basketball), Mishra from Bihar (‘who is older than me’), Lalit Bhanot (‘now in jail’), Rajeev Mehta (kho-kho federation) and Aslam Khan (‘who was vice-president of the IHF’).

Gill said the IHF did not want the game and the players to suffer and that was why it held the junior and senior nationals and recommended the names of 40 players, who could be trained by HI, if the Ministry so desired. When asked about the veiled threat issued by Maken when he asked the warring hockey bodies to ship up or shape out, or else face serious action, Gill countered: “Maken has already taken action and now what threat?”

Gill said IHF had been slighted when the Ministry gave permission to Hockey India to hold the Champions Trophy (in December this year) and Olympic qualifiers (in February, 2011) at the National Stadium in Delhi while discussions were going on for the merger. “The Government had carried out a sustained publicity campaign against the IHF, despite the fact that we had improved the hockey standing from 13th to 5th,” Gill added.

He said certain “glaring facts” had come to light in reply to an RTI query which “reveals the naked truth behind the largest conspiracy in the creation of Hockey India”. Gill said a “conspiracy” was hatched up during the Beijing Olympics on August 22, 2008 by four persons for conducting the Men’s Hockey World Cup 2010 (held in Delhi).

“Chief conspirator (IOA president) Suresh Kalmadi, (IOA secretary-general) Randhir Singh, Els van Breda Vriesman and Peter I Cohen (both from the FIH) hatched a scheme for their illegal monetary gains, superseded an earlier Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the FIH and the IHC (the Indian Hockey Confederation) on 7th August, 2007 in Delhi, which was also approved by the Government of India,” Gill explained.

He termed this MoU as the most dishonest document as far as MoUs go. He said the IHF had approved only Rs 1.825 crore for the conduct of the World Cup, but when it was hosted by IOA, HI and FIH, the expenses shot up to Rs 20 crore, and on the same specifications.

Gill pointed out that when an RTI application was filed to secure details of income and expenditure on the World Cup, no reply was received on the purported ground that the “confidentiality clause” of the MOU prohibited sharing of this information, and that the event was organised through a ‘Special Purpose Vehicle’ and a private organisation called the Organising Committee Hero Honda World Cup, which was dissolved immediately after the event.

He said such an organisational structure violated the terms of the MOU and it was installed to “misappropriate the entire and inflated budget allocated for the World Cup”.

Gill said the profit of the World Cup was to be reinvested for the promotion of hockey in India, but the entire amount has been “misappropriated”. He said he had raised this issue, and following that the FIH president (Leandro Negro) had disclosed that $300,000 had been paid to Hockey India from the income of the World Cup, but “no account of expenditure of this amount has been disclosed”.

Gill said according to the information furnished by Hockey India to an RTI query, “all profits will go to a Hockey Development Fund for the development of hockey in India” though not a penny has been deposited in the fund.

“The merger of IHF and HI will be subject to adhering the conditions put forward by the IHF, including the return of the units walked away from the IHF,” Gill insisted, as he walked away, sporting an inscrutable smile.