FIH's President Leandro Negre is very keen for the promotion of hockey around the globe: Hockey News
Federation of International Hockey's (FIH) President, Leandro Negre and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kelly Fairweather, made a seven-day long trip to India to discuss some important issues with the representatives of Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) regarding
reshaping the scope of hockey in India and its promotion across the world.
During their visit to India, they had several meetings with officials of IHF and discussed in great detail, the hosting of five international events which are scheduled to be held in India from 2011 to 2014. They include the men's Champions Trophy (2011),
Men's and Women's Olympics qualifiers (Feb 2012), Men's and Women's Junior World Cups (2013), Men's World League Finals (2013) and Women's Champions Trophy (2014).
"Hockey is the national game of India and and so we want to make it the game's hub for the next few years. We know that there is a big gap between cricket and hockey in this country and we want to bridge that gap" FIH President Leandro Negre said.
They also discussed the feasibility of the projected professional authorised team league that will be conducted by Hockey India (HI) in collaboration with FIH.
Both the bodies, FIH and HI have agreed upon the decision to have a partnership for configuration of the professional league. The inaugural edition of the league will be played in January 2013 in India and will include six to eight franchised teams.
In this regard FIH and HI will soon instigate a procedure for the selection of a partner who has sports marketing proficiency and event delivery skills for the assistance of the project.
The development of the professional league is one of the several step-ladders in making hockey a high profiled game in India and its promotion in some other countries of the world. The professional hockey league will be incorporated with a significant prize-money
for the winner and will also have a lot of incentives for the players.
Having successfully organised the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup in last year 2010, India will now host several major hockey events of international level in the next four years sequence. The first of these events will be the FIH Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy
which will be conducted in December, last month of the current year. FIH looked quite convinced for the successful commencement of Champions Trophy, having witnessed the well organised World Cup just a year before.
In the trip, Negre and Fairweather also met the Sports Minister, Ajay Maken, in India during a two-split question and answer sessions. They sketched out the global strategic plan of FIH in front of the Olympians and officials of IHF and some of the top representatives
from the media industry.
Tags: