FIH weaves new appointment for Webb 

Graham Wilson, Hockey Correspondent at The Daily Express (London), finds out about Roger Webb’s new role. 

For a man who knows how to lay down the law and has come up against some of the toughest characters, Roger Webb seems a genial, wisely and easy-going figure. His impeccable standing as an umpire in the world game and secretary of the Hockey Rules Board has seen him travel far and wide. Now a new journey beckons, calling him from his Cambridge home in England to the Lausanne headquarters of the FIH to take up the newly-created post of Technical Manager. 

His career course in hockey was one he never expected to take even from the time he umpired his first international, but rather something that “came quite naturally”. 

Webb, now 57, was born in Folkestone, Kent, and first played the sport at the Harvey Grammar School where he reached county level. After a brief fling with the sport of judo in which he suffered a back injury, he turned to umpiring though never joined a club, preferring all the time to mix with the umpires. 

“I always thought the umpiring community was my club. I would always enjoy their company and of course the social side to the game. But I deliberately avoided joining a club.” 

And so it was that Webb became involved in umpiring the indoor league at Crystal Palace and was subsequently appointed to take part in his first indoor international tournament in Paris in 1973 at the tender age of 25.

Invites seemed to come easily for Webb, though it was not until five years later that he took charge of his first outdoor international, a match between England and the Netherlands at Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire. He remembers it well. He sent off a gutsy young player called Norman Hughes, an England captain to be, after being “wound up” by one of his own players – the renowned Mike Corby. Now there’s a surprise. 

Webb has always strived to apply the rules “as fairly and sympathetically as possible”. He saw umpiring as a challenge: to make the correct decisions in a way which recognised the skills of players and thereby saw umpiring as a rewarding activity when you learn to get it right most of the time.

“And you hope everyone including players, team officials and spectators recognise you can’t get it right all the time,” he says. 

His high spot was umpiring the final of the Asian Games in Seoul in 1986 with 40,000 in the stadium and a few million watching on television. Korea beat Pakistan in the final to win their first major title which sent them on a path to become one of the foremost hockey nations. 

With more than 100 indoor and outdoor internationals behind him, including World Cup and Olympic assignments, Webb decided to retire in 1991 “when it became too demanding to stay fit enough for the modern, high-speed, game!” 

There was no thought of returning to umpiring at a local level but soon after his retirement, he was asked to lead the newly-formed FIH Rules Advisory Panel and to act as a link between the Hockey Rules Board. 

“I operated in a very flexible and informal way. It was a fascinating experience and I learned a lot. You have to when trying to coordinate discussion among such knowledgeable and forthright people with the playing and coaching experience of Richard Aggiss, ‘a creative thinker with exceptional knowledge of tactics and skills’,  Roger Self, ‘always prepared to be provocative and pose difficult questions’, and Islah-ud-din Siddiqui, ‘a Pakistan gold medallist captain and coach with detailed knowledge of the Asian game’.

"As you can imagine it was a rich and colourful experience.” 

Webb was proud to have been instrumental in making the rules non-gender specific for the first time in 100 years. He was also involved in their complete re-write in 2004 “concentrating” he said “on presenting the rules in simpler ways and so making the game easier to understand.” 

“I still have a rather simplistic view of some rules – and don’t like rules which say “you can do this except when” – that’s where complications and controversies invariably arise.” 

He sees making the rules simpler as a continuing challenge, while recognising that the game involves intricate skills, and to develop the rules in ways which recognise developments in materials and equipment while acknowledging the game’s long tradition. 

With the job comes concerns about safety while recognising there will always be a potential for danger in a game played with a hard ball and a hard stick. 

He believes the umpires still have enough control and have reacted suitably over the recent incidents and arguments over the high-profile dangers at penalty corners but he also believes more facts are needed to make sound judgments. 

“The evidence tends to be anecdotal,” he says. “We must collect more data and must be careful not to legislate about two or three incidents. People must remember that the changes we make go all the way to league and Under 8s level. 

“The rules must not be seen in isolation, an approach I’ll try to bring to my role as FIH Technical Manager.” 

The role brings together rules, equipment and medical matters. These areas have been supported administratively in the FIH Office before but this is the first time they have been linked in a set of management responsibilities.

Webb has worked for 29 years in a management role at The Open University and he intends to use this experience to set up robust procedures for handling these problems.

“My job taught me that if you make something more efficient you also make it more effective. But processes and procedures must also evolve,” he says. “For example, I want to see more use made of the Internet to communicate – for it to be a more extensive resource for rules, equipment and medical matters.” 

The development angle is reinforced by another part of his role, the management coordination of some of the FIH development work and supporting some projects under the Development and Coaching Committee, bringing an opportunity to contribute to widening participation in and enjoyment of hockey. 

He wants wider communication on the web from the elite level, Athletes Panel to the National Associations. “We have to get better at it.” 

He will also be concerned at liaising with specialists in the medical side of the sport, the coaches and the companies involved in stick manufacture, and in particular, with the development of artificial surfaces. 

He wants to see a cheaper artificial pitch product so that the less wealthy countries can afford new pitches.

Webb, widowed and with a 17-year-old daughter, Caroline, ready to study geography at Durham, obviously sees the time as right to make the move to Switzerland. 

“I have made many friends from all over the world from Botswana to Peru and that side of the game has been my great reward. Moving to Lausanne in June will be a challenge, including the transition from living in the flat fenlands of Cambridgeshire to living at the foot of the mountains of Switzerland. Two words describe my feelings about taking on this new role: exciting and challenging. 

“Hockey has been the hobby I’ve enjoyed for a long time and now I’m very lucky to make my hobby my full-time job.”