Remember, Remember…

November the 5th is a night of celebration in England. Many know it as ‘Bonfire Night,’ or even ‘Guy Fawkes night.’

The reason that bonfires are still lit on this day dates back to 1605 when Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the King’s escape from assassination by lighting bonfires. An Act of Parliament designated 5th November each year as a day of thanksgiving for “the joyful day of deliverance”, and remained in force until 1859. However it is still celebrated today, although few may know the origins.

They will however know that Guy Fawkes was actually one of 13 conspirators, who had placed gunpowder in the cellars under the houses of parliament, and intended to detonate them and assassinate the Protestant King James I, and replace him with his daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth. Despite being one of more than a dozen men involved in the gunpowder plot, Guy Fawkes is the individual whose name lives on as the most associated with it.

He was tortured, and once found guilty of treason was hung, drawn and quartered, and his remains scattered to the four corners of the land.

It has been written by James Sharpe, professor of history at the University of York, that Guy Fawkes was described as “the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions.”

On November the 5th 2022 the International Hockey Federation (FIH) will be holding its Congress. This will not be held in any hotel or meeting place, but will be held virtually, on-line. There is unlikely to be any explosions, however there could be some fireworks.

A new president is due to be elected following the premature resignation of Mr. Narinder Batra. There are two candidates, Belgium’s Marc Coudron and Macau’s Pakistan-born Tayyab Ikram.

Regrettably in some quarters this has not become a case of electing the best candidate, but as was the case with FIFA back in the 1970’s a perceived Eurocentric view of the game has seen some nations feel that they must vote for geographical reasons, rather than for who they believe is the best person; of course the two issues may well align, which is fine. However, to vote purely based on where someone is located is foolish.

In the 1970’s FIFA elected Brazilian Joao Havelange ahead of England’s Stanley Rous. His tenure as president would go on to be the second longest in FIFA’s history. While there can be no denying that he did a huge amount of good for the game, his reputation was tarnished when in July 2012 a Swiss prosecutor’s report revealed that, during his tenure on FIFA’s Executive Committee, he and his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira took more than 41 million Swiss francs in bribes in connection with the award of World Cup marketing rights. So was moving away from Europe a good or a bad thing for football?

In truth the stumbling block was probably allowing Havelange to stay on as President for so long. This is one thing that Hockey has right, in that the President can only hold the position for a fixed term.

In November there are also four Executive Board positions up for election; five if Mr. Ikram is elected President. Here we have seven candidates vying for these positions. Of the men standing two come from Europe, two from Oceania, two from Asia and one from Africa. Two women are up for re-election who come from Pan America and Africa and the one other nominee comes from Europe.

It is important that everyone remembers, those being elected and those voting, that the board is entrusted by its members to govern on their behalf. As a result, the primary accountability of boards is to their members and not to anyone else. As a board director, those elected have a duty to place the public interest or the interest of their members above their own interests. If there is a conflict, they need to declare it so that the board can manage it.This helps to maintain the public and the member’s trust.

There has been plenty of rhetoric in relation to these elections. There have also been a lot of words bandied about that are fine when it comes to corporate-speak, but as the old saying goes actions speak louder than words. So what have these individuals achieved in an administrative sense that will see the sport benefit from their election?

This is not about what positions have they held, but about what have they actually achieved. Anyone can hold a position, and as is common practice now especially in sport, that position whether you were any good or not will open the door to a similar position. (Administrators On The Move)

One issue that most in the sport are agreement about is that there needs to be more transparency than there has been in the past. (It It Time For No More Secrets) This means that one change that if it is not already happening should is that all board members must sign a register declaring all positions held by them away from hockey and all other conflicting interests declared, especially those where money is involved.

So if a Board member owns a company that sponsors any section of the game these details must be declared in full. If they have any business interests as a paid employee or as an owner of a company involved in the sport it needs to be on the record, If they are serving on the board or a committee of any other sport that too should be declared, for they could inadvertently divulge information that could be detrimental to Hockey. They must be completely impartial in terms of the sport and their involvement with it. It is not appropriate, as we saw previously, for a board member, no matter how good a player they were to be working as an expert on a TV broadcast of an FIH tournament.

There have been members of the Executive Board who have remained in positions with National Associations. This cannot be allowed to continue into the future, as it is a clear conflict of interest. There is even an argument that the heads of the Confederations should no longer be given voting rights on the Executive Board, and simply attend as observers and contribute only when asked about their region.While many will nod in agreement, will any of these candidates stand up and state that they will be looking to enforce these changes or similar if elected? (Ripping Up The Rules)

Many people seem to not understand what a conflict of interest is.The best way to explain conflicts of interest is that a conflict of interest can firstly be on a personal level where there is a conflict with your duty as a board director and your private interests.This conflict exists if your private interests influence, or are seen to influence, your decisions or actions as a board director. Private interests include direct interests, and usually relate to your own personal, family, professional or business interests.

Then there is a conflict of duty. This is when there is a conflict between your duty as a board director and your duty to another public or private organisation.This conflict exists if you have two or more roles that have competing priorities.

Then there is the situation where an executive board member may have a duty to another private organisation. For example, they may be a director of a private company, a member of a professional organisation, or an office bearer or volunteer at a local club. This needs to be declared and and looked at to see if it can in anyway influence their decision making on various issues.

Even if a Board member has had a conflict with a company or an individual that needs to be declared. As if one exists their feelings about that person or group could influence, or be seen to influence, their decisions or actions as a board director. In some cases that bias could be detrimental to the sport as a whole.

In most cases a conflict of interest is best judged as being in one of three categories, actual, potential and perceived:

With an actual conflict of interest there is a clear and current conflict with their duties as a board director and their private interests or duties.

When it comes to a potential conflict this relates to the individuals private interests or other duties and their duties as a board director.

Perceived conflicts of interest are when the public could believe that their private interests or other duties may influence their performance as a board director.

This is why transparency on these matters are so vitally important.

When one looks at the individuals being nominated it makes one’s heart sink. While all have been great contributors to the game in various ways, and in some cases have had successful careers away from hockey, one feels that the nations putting forward these candidates have an extremely narrow view. Why does the sport restrict itself to people from within the sport?

The sport clearly needs expertise in certain areas but is it not crying out for a fresh approach and ideas from those outside the sport looking in, rather than the myopic view of many who have been entrenched in the sport for decades?

Does Hockey find itself in the same position as many other sports? While the blazers may have gone, and so too the male dominance and possibly some of the elitism, is not the sport still being run by a narrow band of individuals who sit on various committees and make far-reaching decisions on the back of limited information?

In 2008 Lord Triesman became the first independent Chairman of the English Football Association. His task was to drag the sport out of the dark ages. He would resign in 2010 soon after he had been secretly recorded by the Mail on Sunday. Yet his words ring true, and maybe that was the problem.

“One should never underestimate, in my experience, the effectiveness of gatekeeping. You can’t have a system based on ‘Buggins’s turn.’ People say: ‘What’s wrong with Buggins? He put in his time, he did the work. Look at all those youth leagues in say, Hampshire, they’re really good. Why change it?’ But it doesn’t reflect the sport as a whole and it actively leaves some people out. You never ever change that gradually. It changes because there’s a galvanic shock to the bloody system. That shock will be legislation beheading the current system. And then the consequences will go right through the rest of it. It can’t go on like that. You can’t have a representative group, all of them with locked-in interests in only a particular range of outcomes. You can’t have that and expect change.” He was reported as saying.

Does Hockey find itself in a similar situation?

To many in the sport, the game’s governance needs a ‘shock,’ it needs dramatic change. That change will not come at Congress but it could come following it depending on whom is elected.

The FIH Agenda for Congress interestingly has used “stronger” as a key theme. Does this imply weakness, or is it trying to imply that there is division among the member nations?

We have a video planned entitled “stronger together” followed by sessions along the same theme named, “stronger fanbase,” “stronger innovation,” “stronger for society,” “stronger participation,” and finally “stronger governance.” Is this simply more corporate spin?

It was not that long ago that we had the “Hockey Revolution,” which three months after his appointment, the current CEO, Thierry Weil questioned whether it would succeed, stating on the FIH website “there is a passion for the sport that comes from lifelong involvement. For some people, they have been in hockey their entire lives and their parents were involved in the sport before them.The term ‘revolution’ means dramatic change, so for me, as an outsider, a revolution within the sport is an exciting prospect but it’s not easy to implement because the passion for the sport makes it difficult to introduce too much radical change.”

In essence he agrees with Lord Triesman. So as CEO what has he been doing to introduce radical change since his appointment?

Is the ‘revolution’ over? Is it now time to try and batten down the hatches and unite as one?

If so this seems at odds with the direction in which the game is headed.

Sponsorship is a major issue facing the sport, and has been for the past several years as many sponsors have opted not to renew their partnerships with Hockey. Why?

There has also been far too much reliance on revenue from India which in turn has restricted where the major tournaments have been played. The lack of revenue from sponsorship has had a huge impact in other areas. It has meant that the television product has dropped from where it was, and as a result viewing figures have declined and now networks are not prepared to pay what they were.

The game-changing FIH Pro League has not helped in this regard. A global league competition in which teams do not play every week, and is not backed up by strong media coverage is always going to struggle to garner a following; the Covid Pandemic certainly did not help. However, this is now no more than an elitist competition, which unlike the English Premier League where the top clubs reap the financial rewards, it is killing financially the national associations of those involved.

The International fixtures need to be revisited, and a format must be created along the lines of the Hockey World League where all of the hockey playing nations had the opportunity to play. This is why sponsorship has to be found, so that those poorer nations are helped by the Governing body to attend such tournaments and gain experience and exposure.

There has been talk for over six years about producing a Hockey Calendar, but it has been done with little consultation with the member nations. What has been put in place this year saw the long-running Sultan Azlan Shah Cup have to be moved so that Malaysia could play in the Nations Cup. The scheduling of other international matches has also meant that the 29th edition of the tournament sees Malaysia as the highest ranked team, currently at 10 in the World. This is the first time ever that the guest nations are all from outside the top 10 teams.

The impact this has on the tournament is that few of the television stations from those nations are prepared or can afford to buy the coverage. Which then puts the coverage of the event in jeopardy, which in turn can harm the tournament as a whole.

What is so sad is that this tournament was created by the late Sultan, a man who not only loved the sport but also served it well during his lifetime. In his life he was known as the “Father of Malaysian Hockey.” He served as President of the Malaysian Hockey Confederation until 2005, and was the elected President of the Asian Hockey Federation from 1997 and served until his death. He was an Executive Board member of FIH, serving as vice-president for two terms starting in 1992. In 1983, the Sultan founded the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. One can only imagine what he would have made of the current situation which has arisen due to a lack of respect for the history of the game, and a lack of understanding when it comes to the impact of certain ill-judged decisions.

There is so much that needs to be addressed. Not least of all the finances of the FIH, as a lack of a Financial report since the audited report of 2018/19 has many concerned as to the true state of the game.

Another item that needs to be declared is whether any Board members are being paid consultancy fees or the like. As witnessed with FIFA many Executive Board members were receiving such fees. This is not uncommon in many organisations, however because these transactions occur between the organisation and someone closely associated with it, they must be carefully managed so that they meet any obligations under the law. There is a duty and a responsibility to disclose them.

Credibility also needs to be restored to the FIH Awards as the events of the past few years have now devalued the accolades afforded to those who went before. (Is Resentment the Cause of Hostility?)

Congress will not be the place for many of these issues to be discussed and solutions found, but the election of the new Executive Board members will undoubtedly have a huge impact on whether change can happen in the coming years, or whether it will be more of the same.

For those who are standing for election they would be wise to remember that this is not in fact a popularity contest. It is whether people believe you have what it takes to take the game forward and protect its future. Often that will mean upsetting people. As Winston Churchill once remarked “You have enemies? Good. That means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

Guy Fawkes rightly or wrongly stood up for what he believed, and again rightly or wrongly his memory has become immortal. One of the reasons for that maybe the nursery rhyme that was written about the gunpowder plot which opens with the oft quoted line, “Remember, remember the fifth of November.”

Will this be a date that the hockey world will remember for years to come, and if so for what reason?