WSH an unofficial league, says FIH

V Narayan Swamy

BANGALORE: The World Series Hockey and the riches that it promises hasn’t impressed International Hockey Federation (FIH).

The Lausanne-based world body’s refrain is that it is an “unofficial tournament planned by an unofficial body”.

Reacting to the WSH launch on Tuesday, FIH president Leandro Negre said tournaments where Hockey India is not involved wouldn’t be recognized by the world body. “We recognize only Hockey India and that has been made clear to everybody on many occasions in the past. For us, Indian Hockey Federation ceased to exist long back. It is not an official body and has no authority to run tournaments of this stature. So the tournament it has planned is not official,” he said.

Questioning the legitimacy of the league, Negre said FIH would officially communicate its stand to all top hockey playing nations in the world and expect the national sports federations to endorse its stand.

The league, announced by Nimbus Sports and IHF, plans to rope in 60 top international players besides the cream of Indian talent for amounts unheard of in the game. The total prize fund promised is a whopping $3m. As pointed out by Nimbus supremo Harish Thawani, Negre admitted that FIH did not have the power to stop any player from taking part in the league.

“In our communication to the NSFs, we will explain in detail about who they would be dealing with in India. We expect the ‘unofficial’ tag to be a big deterrent.

The national federations are responsible organizations and we hope they will stop their players from figuring in this league,” he said.

When pointed out that the Supreme Court is yet to deliver its verdict on which body between HI and IHF would govern the game in India, Negre said: “That is India’s internal matter. As of now, FIH’s stand is clear. The league is unofficial.”