President’s View

As mentioned in the last edition of WorldHockey Online, hockey’s new Olympic Qualifying Criteria for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games proposed by FIH was approved by the IOC Executive Board in mid-February.

This month, we are pleased to provide the details of this new qualifying system. The detailed document outlining the qualifying process is available to download from the FIH website.

As well as the main benefits previously noted, namely the increase in direct entrants and number of teams involved in the final stage of qualifying, this new system will also add four additional world-level events to the international calendar, enabling high quality hockey to be taken to all parts of the hockey-playing world.

While qualification events for the Olympic Games are on the horizon, more pressing engagements await our international teams in the next six months, with the high concentration of major tournaments in 2006 about to start.

It all begins with the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, in the final two weeks of March.

While not all hockey-playing nations are eligible to compete at this multi-sport competition, the Games play an important role in the promotion and exposure for our sport in countries such as India, Pakistan, Australia, Malaysia, England and New Zealand. The FIH website will have live coverage from Melbourne throughout the tournament.

After the Commonwealth Games, the first FIH world-level events for 2006 will be contested.

The men’s BDO Hockey World Cup Qualifier and the women’s Samsung Hockey World Cup Qualifier during April and May signal the final qualifying stage for the two biggest events this year.

Preparations for the men’s BDO Hockey World Cup and women’s Samsung Hockey World Cup are progressing well and with the release of the match schedules following confirmation of the competing teams in May, organisers will be able to intensive their promotional activities to ensure that both events are a great success.

This week is a busy one for FIH, with the first Executive Board meeting for 2006 taking place at our world headquarters in Lausanne on 3 and 4 March.

Before the Executive Board assembled, another important meeting took place - a gathering of representatives from our top hockey nations to discuss the future of world hockey and how to best promote and mantain control of our sport worldwide.

This was a follow-up to an initial meeting held in Chennai during the men’s Sahara Hockey Champions Trophy last December, and FIH eager to include our major nations in this critical review and decision-making process.

With the support from all stakeholders, the outcomes discussions this week will ultimately help to place hockey in a stronger position in the highly competitive sports marketplace.

Els van Breda Vriesman
FIH President