ISLAMABAD: International Hockey Federation (FIH) plans to introduce dry artificial turfs taking over from the watery one from 2024 onward in an effort to protect the environment.
The decision was taken in the FIH Executive Board meeting concluded in Lausanne (Switzerland). “The FIH EB received an update on progress that has been made in order to launch dry artificial turf pitches by 2024. Having announced this target at the FIH Congress, FIH are in discussion with multiple members of the artificial turf industry about how this can be realised so that hockey can contribute towards protecting the environment by no longer watering playing surfaces,” the FIH hand out says.
The Board reasserted the absolute necessity of establishing a rolling four-year international competition calendar that balances opportunity for all nations to participate, athlete welfare and the commercial realities of international travel.
The recent review into the international calendar, together with revisions to the current world ranking system, resulted in a series of recommendations which were approved including increasing the importance of continental championships and events, discontinuing the FIH Series events after 2019, allowing National Associations to focus on participation in Continental qualifiers and championships besides reviewing the World Cup qualification system with more weight given to Continental championship performance.
The new match-based rankings system has been developed using the results of all international matches over the past three years, and will be run and further improved in the background during 2019, with a target date of January 2020.