FIH rejects the WSH concept of IHF’s hockey league: Hockey News
The lavish-style hockey league, World Series Hockey (WSH), received shocking news from the International Hockey Federation (FIH), which declared the IPL-based hockey league as unofficial.
Many sporting giants including Hockey India, FIH, and Sports Ministry of India are attempting to ground the plane of the World Series Hockey, which has yet to be take its first lift off.
IHF in collaboration with Nimbus Sports has planned to organise an annual- based hockey league having munificent and glamorous touch, as like its sister game of cricket, IPL. Nimbus Sports, the sub-section of the Nimbus Communication penned an agreement
with the India Hockey Federation for the next fifteen years to annually organise the WSH.
Hockey India (FIH recognised sport body), however, has started opposition and threatened the players not to join the WSH otherwise they would be dropped from the national squad. Similarly, the International Hockey Federation has proclaimed the league as
unofficial stating that the IHF is an unofficial body and has no right to rope in international players in this regard.
President of the FIH, Leandro Negre while talking to the media said, “We recognise only Hockey India and that has been made clear to everybody on many occasions in the past. For us, Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) 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 further said that he would formally inform leading hockey playing countries about the risks involved in this regard and hopefully all the nations would follow their guidelines. The participation of some 60 international players into the glamorous event
has been put into doubt with this announcement.
The FIH President maintained that they have no force to stop international hockey players from joining the hockey league; however he expressed hopes that the concerned national federations would take steps in this regard.
Commenting on a pending case before the Supreme Court of India regarding official sport body of the country, Leandro was of the view, “That is India's internal matter. As of now, FIH's stand is clear. The league is unofficial.”
It is pertinent to mention here that same tantrum was observed when Indian Premier League (cricket event) was launched, which had lost its shine within few years due to severe pressure from the concerned cricket authorities.
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