IOA, HI and IHF to meet on October 14: Maken

NEW DELHI: Faced with the prospect of India’s hockey team being ousted from the race to Olympics, the sports ministry has called a meeting of the IOA, Hockey India and the Indian Hockey Federation on October 14 to resolve the dispute related to the game’s governance in the country.

Sports minister Ajay Maken on Wednesday said that the two warring fractions – HI and IHF – along with the IOA will be holding a meeting to reach a common understanding, failing which the ministry will intervene and try to resolve the matter.

“IOA, HI and IHF will be holding a meeting on October 14 to resolve the issue of governance of the game in the country but if nothing comes out of it then we will try to resolve the issue,” he said.

Maken, however, praised the IOA’s decision to call an urgent meeting yesterday following FIH’s threat to shift the Olympic qualifiers from the country, which might jeopardise the national team’s chances of making it to the London Olympics.

The hurriedly called meeting by IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra was attended by IHF representatives KPS Gill, Ashok Mathur and Amrit Bose, and HI’s secretary general Narinder Batra but it failed to give a solution.