Hockey India urges sponsor company to increase funding up to five-fold
The renewal of the contract between Hockey India (HI) and the National Team Sponsor, namely Sahara, seems to be in doldrums as the sports governing body has asked the supporting-company to increase the sponsorship amount up to five-fold.
It is worth mentioning that the current agreement between Sahara and HI will expire on July 15, 2011 with a value of INR 30 million. The existing amount in the head of sponsorship covers all sections of the sport, which include national hockey team, women’s
hockey team and junior squads.
Sahara had inked the contract with the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) back in the 2003 for eight years. Conversely, the agreement was reconsidered in 2008 when HI was replaced with IHF, after the latter federation was de-recognised by the International Hockey
Federation (FIH). After the reconsideration, the deal with the worth of INR 30 million was fixed for the next three years.
According to some media reports, Hockey India made a demand asking the corporation to enlarge the sponsorship fee up to INR 150–170 million. The report quoting sources said that the sponsoring company had been agreed to increase the funding amount, as numerous
high profile tournaments are scheduled to be held in India. It stated, “HI has said that the national team has several commitments lined up in the next four to five years. While Sahara have agreed to increase the sponsorship amount, the five-fold hike is not
acceptable to them.”
Narinder Batra, the Secretary General of Hockey India, while speaking to the reporters confirmed the information saying that they had asked the sponsoring company to augment the funding. However, he declined to reveal the worth of the demand. They wanted
to fix a big amount in order to expand the developmental project of the sport in the country.
It is also important to mention here that the deal could have gone to other sponsored companies in case the two parties failed to reach a conclusion in this regard. The HI Secretary was of the opinion that their first choice would be Sahara Group, as they
both had long term relations. He however stated that they could go for other options in case of dialogue failures. A large number of corporations expressed their interests to getting the sponsorship of the national game.
Abhijit Sarkar, the Chief of the Corporate Communications of Sahara Group, said that they were looking for a formal request from the national governing body. While showing willingness, the head was of the opinion that the sponsorship money would be increased
as per the market value. However, he was of the view that the amount will be merely for game development rather for running the federation.
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