FIH objects to Indian hockey truce

International Hockey Federation (FIH) has rejected the settlement reached to govern the sport in India and has threatened to strip the country of its hosting rights to the Champions Trophy and Olympic qualifying tournaments.

Last week, the two rival bodies, Hockey India (HI) and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), revealed that they had signed a working agreement under the supervision of India's Sports Ministry, setting up a unified executive board comprising four members from each side.

By endorsing the deal, the Ministry had agreed to give HI provisional affiliation through to the end of December 2012 while continuing with the recognition granted to IHF.

However, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) acting President Vijay Kumar Malhotra rubbished the new truce as "a bizarre live-in relationship" and the FIH has now followed suit with a strongly worded statement in which it expressed its "grave concern" over the latest development in the long-running saga.

The FIH has maintained there can be only one governing body for a sport in a country, according to its statutes and the Olympic Charter. The FIH considers HI to be its recognised body in India and has reaffirmed that it has not recognised the IHF since 2000.

The statement read: "The FIH Executive Board is obliged to uphold the Olympic Charter and the FIH statutes. The FIH president has therefore written to the Indian Sports Minister, calling for an urgent meeting, involving the presidents of HI and the IOA, to discuss the FIH's concerns and the ramifications of the current proposal for India's role in world hockey.

"In the meantime, the FIH executive board has decided that it is neither possible nor appropriate to continue with the discussions with HI to host tournaments in India over the next four year cycle, particularly the FIH Men's Champions Trophy (December 2011), and the FIH Men's & Women's Olympic

Qualifying Tournaments (February 2012). The FIH greatly regrets this decision but feels that it is left with no alternative in the circumstances."

The current scenario sees India presented with the prospect of not only losing its tournament hosting rights, but also the possibility of its hockey teams being barred from the London Olympics.

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