PHF Executive Board to meet in last week of July

KARACHI: The Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) Executive Board meeting is likely to be held in Islamabad on July 24 or 26 to discuss all national hockey affairs.

The meeting is held every year but this time it will be extraordinarily important because the visit of World Hockey Eleven and Pakistan Hockey League (PHL) will be discussed in the meeting.

All PHF high officials, provincial hockey associations’ secretaries and technocrats will participate in the meeting. The PHF Executive Board will review the expenditure of national competitions and international engagements of senior and junior teams. PHF sources said that senior and junior teams’ managements would also be invited to the meeting to review their performances.

The national selection committee members could also be called, the sources added. The Executive Board members will discuss the arrangements to be made for the visit of World Hockey Eleven for playing two matches.

The sources said that some former hockey legends could be invited to make the event colourful. The Executive Board members would also discuss the participation of Pakistan players in professional hockey leagues in other countries, a source said. “Serious questions are being raised on the participation of players in professional leagues because they often clash with international engagements of the team,” he added.

“The players either avoid playing for Pakistan or if they play they have already spent their energies in the professional leagues, which hurts Pakistan’s performance,” he said. “The PHF Executive Board will discuss this issue at length and recommend some bylaws for participation in professional leagues.”

The Board members will also finalise the details of PHL which the PHF plans to hold in November and December this year. The secretaries of provincial associations will present their annual reports in the meeting and several other domestic hockey issues will be discussed, the sources said.

The senior team is to participate in Asia Cup in October in Bangladesh. The Junior team is to play Junior Asia Cup 2017 and some test series with different countries this year. The Executive Board meeting recommendations would be sent to PHF congress for final approval, the source said.