New Delhi, Oct 5 :The urgent meeting convened by the India Olympic Association on Tuesday failed to resolve the dispute between Hockey India and Indian Hockey Federation over the issue of governance of the game in the country.
The meeting was convened following FIH's threat to shift the Olympic qualifiers from the country which might jeopardise national team's chances of making it to the London Games. The hurriedly called meeting by the IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra was attended by IHF representatives KPS Gill, Ashok Mathur and Amrit Bose while HI was represented by its secretary-general Narinder Batra.
“It was a preliminary meeting and we heard both the sides. It's a very very complicated affair. 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 reporters here.
“There are whole lot of issues and to come up with any immediate solution, that will take some time. The FIH's stand that there should be only one body governing the game in the country,” Malhotra said.
“The merger initiated by the union Sports Ministry between HI and IHF and the IOA's stand that there should be no government interference as per the IOC charter, issues like these will take time to resolve and today's meeting was just a step in that direction. We all want an amicable solution and hope hope for the best,” added Malhotra.
In its letter to the sports ministry, dated September 27,the International Hockey Federation (FIH) had warned that India's participation in next year's London Olympics may be jeopardised, if IOC charter and FIH statutes were not adhered to while resolving the issues related to the governance of the game in the country. PTI
