International Hockey Federation : President's View

While the international hockey community prepares for the start of a hectic period of world-level tournaments this month, and those involved focus intensely on their respective tasks, we should also pause to pay tribute to a man who devoted much of his life to improving our great sport.

Former FIH Council member and European Hockey Federation President, Alain Danet, passed away almost two weeks ago, leaving a remarkable record of sports administration as his legacy.

Alain was a mentor and inspiration for those who worked alongside him and his contribution to hockey and sport in general, particularly in France, will be difficult to match. His style and sportsmanship will be deeply missed.

A memorial service for Alain will be held in Paris later this month.

April marks the start of an exciting period of international hockey in 2006 as the world’s elite qualify, train and ultimately compete for the men’s and women’s World Cups in September and October.

To get things started, two qualifying events, the men’s BDO Hockey World Cup Qualifier and the women’s Samsung Hockey World Cup Qualifier will be held this month.

Both tournaments will decide the remaining five places at the World Cups and the expectation is that the competition will be extremely close.

This week’s BDO Hockey World Cup Qualifier is the first men’s world level event to be held in China and with two years to go until the Beijing Olympics, the tournament marks the start of an exciting build-up to what promising to be a spectacular games in 2008.

China has been among the women’s elite for many years and hopefully the chance to play a major tournament at home will inspire its men’s team to similar achievements.

Similarly, the women’s Samsung Hockey World Cup Qualifier later this month will provide further momentum to the promotion of hockey in Italy.

The Italian women’s team has made positive steps in past years and an increased international programme has helped them achieve good results on the world stage.

Els van Breda Vriseman
FIH President