Indian Women Hockey Federation merges with IHF

Indian’s Women Hockey Federation has merged with Indian Hockey Federation today. The government has asked IHF to join with IWHF and take control of hockey affairs in India. MoS had also asked FIH to give the status of NSF to IHF.

IHF has still not received any permission from FIH as they still consider HI as the sole representative of hockey in India. In order to “become” a democratic body, the IHF will hold its elections in October. But the way for IHF is not all milk and roses.

Women's Hockey will gain from this move

In a letter issued by the FIH, they have expressed their reluctance to recognize IHF as the representative body for Indian Hockey. It says that it had de-recognized IHF in the year 2000 for not following the guidelines of merging of both men’s and women’s federation.

One must question the FIH on what were they doing from the period of 2000 to 2008? If they had de-recognized IHF why were Indian teams allowed to participate?

India featured in 2004 Olympics, WC and Champions Trophy, in which FIH has full power. So, if Indian Hockey Federation had been de-recognized then the team should not have been allowed to participate. According to me, this is just a pure publicity stunt in which FIH wants to show its power. But, in reality it does not have any power. It is just a mere spectator which sometimes acts as a puppet of European teams. With the women’s team preparing for the World Cup and CWG coming up, the FIH’s decision to ban Indian team will not go down well.

The FIH cannot ban the India Team simply because of the revenues. The commercial success of the WC has opened the eyes of FIH and banning the team will lose them lots of money. FIH is in a dilemma about what step should it take in future that will generate revenues and even show their strength.

For now, we as fans can only wait for the FIH’s decision on IFH. Let’s hope all goes well.