Indian Olympic Association fails to break Hockey India-Indian Hockey Federation deadlock
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) – which has not yet recovered from the devastating loss of not being able to host the eight-nation Champions Trophy – has started efforts to resolve the disagreement between Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and Hockey India
(HI). However, the first attempt to settle the dispute between the two warring federations was foiled.
It is vital to mention here that after shifting the Champions Trophy to New Zealand, the FIH had further warned the Sports Ministry of India about withdrawing the Olympic Qualifiers and banning their entry into the London Gala if they did not resolve the
matter at the earliest.
Officials from all the three bodies met on Tuesday to resolve the conflict. The meeting was chaired by the Acting President of IOA, Vijay Kumar Malhotra. Other attendees included Narinder Batra, KPS Gill, Amrit Bose and Ashok Mathur. No fruitful outcomes
materialized from the meeting.
“It was a preliminary meeting and we heard both the sides. It's a very difficult scenario at the moment. We have requested both the HI and IHF to keep players, country and hockey's interest in mind so that FIH does not take away Olympics qualifiers from
India,” Malhotra told the reporters after the sitting.
Malhotra claimed that it would take time to reconcile the two federations. However, they will succeed in forming a single entity to represent the sport, as per the demand of the world’s governing body.
The IOA is opposed to any interference on part of the government to forcefully merge the two units. All stakeholders want the issue to be sorted in cordial way and hopefully it will be done so, he added.
While expressing his optimism, Malhotra continued, “We want HI and IHF to come up with a compromise soon and keep their egos aside in the best interest of hockey. We are confident that Olympic qualifiers will be held in India and our team will qualify for
the London Olympics.”
In the concluding remarks, he stated that the IOA recognized Hockey India as the only legal unit to govern the sport in the country.
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