How the Mighty Have Fallen

It was sad to wake up this morning and read the news that Pakistan’s Hockey team had withdrawn from the FIH Pro-League. It was sad, but came as no surprise.

Some may ask why it was sad. To this writer it was sad because one of his early influencers in the game was a coach from Pakistan, who willingly gave up his free time to try and make me and two others better players, simply because he loved the game. His passion was a beacon to our young impressionable eyes. Sad, because Pakistan for so long have brought a level of skill to the game that has made it a joy to watch. That they have as a nation had such an impact on the game as a whole.

Yet this news was almost inevitable. The game has for a long time been mismanaged in Pakistan. Ex-players have taken roles simply to boost their own egos, or because they felt ‘that the game owed them.’ Yet they brought little or nothing to the table to sustain and improve Pakistan Hockey, to make it once again competitive. In fact for a number of years the nation’s inability to host games in Pakistan has seen them pillage the Youth programs simply to be able to attend senior tournaments overseas. (More Than A Numbers Game).

Hindsight they say is perfect vision, but with phrases such as the “Hockey Family” being banded about so freely, should “the family” have stepped in and tried to help before it reached this stage? How many top quality coaches do they have in Pakistan? Is that an area “the family” could have helped? Could they have helped setting up a league competition to give the players a platform on which to perform?

The failure of their Junior World Cup team to get visas and be able to compete at the 2016 event was a warning sign of things to come.

As is often the case there is no one issue that has led to this outcome. Needless to say many fans are looking around for someone to blame. How can a League being billed as a “game-changer” have a team withdraw after one week and one game?

Needless to say attention has gone onto those who selected the teams for the Pro-League, and the process and criteria that saw teams selected.

Yet the minutes of the Board meeting held 16-17 August 2016 in Rio di Janeiro show that Ken Read, who was the Chair of the EPWG and FIH Competitions committee is recorded as stating that Pakistan were not being considered. When asked if he had approached Pakistan the minutes record “Ken responded that he had not and it had not been the intention, but we can follow the Board’s wishes. It was noted that the reality is that Pakistan would love to play at home but other teams were not willing to go there.”

As anyone in any business knows if you do not have the ability to host your business then you are always going to struggle to break even, let alone make money. In the sporting world renting/or leasing stadia is not a cheap exercise. To play all your “home” games away was going to be a costly venture, especially as Pakistan’s core base of fans were unlikely to travel. If Pakistan’s management could not see this, surely the FIH’s management could, and should have flagged it as a problem.

The Minutes go on to reject Dubai as an option, but they state “that Pakistan was looking to play from Bangladesh.” However the next sentence is the key one, remembering Mr Read and his committee had at that stage not considered Pakistan as an option for the FIH Pro-League. It reads “it was decided that dialogue should be opened with them to discover their intention in this regard.”

“The Board was surprised that India had only shown interest in entering Men. Ken said that the discussions were not finalised and he felt that if the FIH asked for an extra women’s team it would probably be forthcoming.”

It should be noted that the current President of the FIH Dr Narinder Batra, was not President at the time and was excused from this meeting, so was not part of these discussions, and many of the Board sitting at this meeting have since been replaced.

It is worth knowing that in the background there were negotiations taking place with Star Sports who at that time were the FIH’s broadcast partner, and Star Sports were looking to have the Media Rights ownership of what was then referred to as “the Global League M and W.”

These negotiations involved the preferred number of teams in the competition, the length of the tournament, etcetera. Star also wanted to have observer status at FIH Executive Board meetings; this request was rejected. Trying to keep a sponsor happy, a sponsor who was bringing in millions of dollars to the FIH was totally understandable.

Regrettably the marriage between the FIH and Star Sports which was destined for eight years from 2015-2022 ended in divorce in 2017. Although Star was to remain as the FIH’s Broadcast partner regionally.

Away from Star questions were raised at this point in time with regards to the make up of the League, and how if based solely on World Rankings the League would be made up of predominantly European nations. Questions were sensibly raised that if this was to be a truly Global competition then some European sides would have to miss out. Realistically commercial elements had to be taken into consideration when selecting the teams to take part.

Once the teams for the FIH were announced Pakistan were included, and it was revealed that they would play all of their home games in Scotland. Yet as we all know now, that was not locked in. In fact very little was locked in. That is apart from an alleged clause in the Star contract that stipulated that both India and Pakistan would be in the Pro League. (Looking For Answers) Both were selected.

The announcement of teams was made on June 11th 2017, on July 8th India announced they were withdrawing. Now Pakistan has withdrawn as well.

The press release states that the “FIH were left with no other option than suspending Pakistan from the rest of the competition’s season.” Many who saw the Pro-League contract have said that the contract stated that teams that withdrew would be omitted from the Olympics. These same people have asked why India did not receive a similar penalty? The answer is probably linked to the fact that India were hosting the 2018 Men’s Hockey World Cup and prior to that the 2017 Hockey World League finals, it would not have looked good to suspend the host nation, and would have been costly to the FIH in terms of revenue generated from India. Also it would have been hard to find a replacement host at the 11th hour.

However the word is that an agreement was brokered by the former CEO Jason McCraken that allowed India up until 30 September 2017 to withdraw with no penalties, this was apparently related to unresolved contractual issues in relation to TV Rights with Star Sports.

However coming back to Pakistan, one has to ask is suspending them really going to help the game in that country? It is understandable that they have embarrassed the Pro-League, but surely it emphasises the disarray that the game is in there, and highlights that desperate help is required?

Of course everyone is looking for a scapegoat, as this does not reflect well on the game as a whole. Should not the priority be to try and help Pakistan get back on track?

At this point in time people are understandably very emotional. They want answers as to how this could happen. It is very hard to judge unless all of the facts are laid on the table. How much did Star Sports influence the inclusion of Pakistan? What was the financial benefit? Were the selection committee forced by the Board to include them? Was it purely a geographical decision? Did Pakistan lodge a bank guarantee with the FIH? There are so many questions that need to be addressed.

Clearly there needs to be a full investigation by people outside of the game to get to the bottom of what has transpired. Then they can no doubt unravel the chain of events that have led to this situation. The withdrawal at such a late stage has damaged the image of hockey. It has also probably put existing contracts in jeopardy, as they have been signed on the basis of nine teams taking part in the Men’s competition. To have not realised the impact withdrawal would have was incredibly naive by the Pakistan Federation, and reflects badly on those in charge

How could this happen? How did this happen? It is a very sad day for Pakistan Hockey and a very sad day for Hockey as a game.