gulfnews.com, Dubai: UAE has bid for the Asia Cup hockey tournament to be held in 2009.
P. Alagendra, the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) secretary general, has announced that UAE, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Bangladesh are among the contenders to stage the Asia Cup in 2009.

The venue will be decided at the executive council meeting of the AHF on July 17. UAE has bid to stage the event as Dubai Sports City’s state of the art hockey stadium is expected to be ready by next year.

“The Dubai Sports City hockey stadium will be ready by February-March. We have expressed our willingness to stage the event but had not heard from the AHF. If the Asia Cup is scheduled to be held after March, our stadium will be ready,” remarked U. Balasubramaniam, the Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Sports City.

The AHF is yet to finalise the dates of the tournament.
“We have a seating capacity of 5,000 and through temporary seating, the capacity of the stadium can be increased to 7,000,” added Balasubramaniam.

The Indian Hockey Federation, with a new administrative body, is also keen to host the Asia Cup and resurrect the game in India after they had failed to even qualify for the Olympic games.

Incidentally, the 2007 Asia Cup was also held in Chennai, India. India are the defending champions beating Korea in the final by a 7-2 margin.

The Asia Cup is also an Asian qualifying event for 2010 World Cup final, which is also scheduled to be held in India.

Alagendra said that he has got all the bid documents and AHF Competitions Committee has made its recommendations to the executive council.

Incidentally, Oman will be playing in the 2009 Asia Cup. They became the only Gulf country to represent in the Asia Cup by finishing among the top two in the AHF Cup.

The teams participating in the next Asia Cup are India, Pakistan, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and China and the top two from AHF Cup which are Bangladesh and Oman.

The AHF has also plans to increase the number of teams for the next Asia Cup from eight to ten.

Dubai Sports City officials has been closely interacting with the International Hockey Federation (FIH) officials to bring international tournaments to UAE. Els van Breda Viresman, the President of the FIH, during her last visit to Dubai in 2004 held talks with Khalid Al Zarooni, the president of the Dubai Sports City and Balasubramaniam.

The Dubai Sports City also signed a long-term partnership with the FIH during the last World Cup in Moenchengladbach, Germany. The World Hockey Academy is already being set up at the Dubai Sports City.

It is expected to provide coaching at the highest level with well-known coaches expected to join the academy soon.

The Dubai Sports City announced that hockey players, both professional and amateurs would be able to utilise the World Hockey Academy.

The hockey stadium has been built according to guidelines set by the FIH.