‘Inter-club events, scrutiny, elections to overhaul hockey structure’

KARACHI: Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) Director Development and Domestic Naveed Alam has said that inter-club competitions, clubs’ scrutiny and elections would go a long way in overhauling the domestic structure and reinvigorate the national sport.

He was addressing a press conference at the National Hockey Stadium, Lahore. “PHF desires that the genuine hockey clubs and players as well as game’s true lovers and patrons get due recognition and representation. The inter-club competition is being organised in all the districts of Pakistan,” he said.

It has already started at several places and will likely finish by the end of this month.These competitions will be conducted under the supervision of the PHF and will involve technical delegates, observers and district sports officers. The scrutiny will start after these competitions.

The teams will be photographed. Each club must have its own ground with at least 14 active players. All the matches are to be video recorded which will help judge if the club has genuine players. Each club can have a maximum of three departmental players.

The players’ NIC/B Forms will be authenticated. He will be registered only at the place of his domicile.The scrutiny committees have almost been finalised and would be announced soon by the Chief Election Commissioner whose name would be announced in a few days, Naveed said.

The elections would be held the same day in all the districts of the country, he added. Only the clubs identified as genuine would be allowed to participate in the elections, he said.The districts’ elections will be followed by the divisional, provincial and national elections.

PHF president Brigadier (rtd) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar has emphasised that the whole process should be transparent with full implementation of the laid down procedures.

Answering a question, Naveed agreed that many people would get unhappy during this process. “You can’t satisfy everyone when conducting an exercise to get rid of bogus clubs and people with self interests who are least bothered by Pakistan hockey’sDecline,” he said. “All this process has been approved by the PHF Congress and Executive Board,” Naveed said.