Time To Cut Your Cloth

The African Hockey Championships are under way in Cape Town. On the line is a place at the Tokyo Olympics for what should have been the eight men’s and seven women’s teams.

Of the teams supposed to be competing only Nigeria, Ghana, and Namibia have never had a team compete at the Olympic Games. Egypt’s men have attended two Games, Kenya’s men seven Olympics and Uganda has attended one event. Since becoming Zimbabwe, their men’s team has not attended any modern day Olympic Games, but prior to that in 1964 attended as Rhodesia.

While Hockey at international level has been a long struggle for the women of Africa Zimbabwe’s Women can claim the only Olympic field Hockey medal, a gold one in 1980.

Sadly before a whistle was blown the competition numbers were reduced. Nigeria withdrew both their men’s and women’s teams and so too did Uganda. This is terrible news on so many levels. From an organisational point of view the whole tournament structure had to be changed. From a Hockey perspective it is sad that four teams have withdrawn, the alleged reasons being the cost.

The host nation, South Africa’s men’s and women’s teams who have attended four Olympic Games since being re-admitted to the fold after the end of Apartheid are favourites to win. Both qualified for Rio in 2016, but the South African Olympic Committee decided not to send a team, again this was said to be down to the cost and the fact that the teams were unlikely to medal.

This withdrawal four years ago caused a great deal of upheaval to the sport, and understandably was heart-breaking for the players and coaching staff. The word is that having made the final of the Hockey Series Finals, the teams have been assured that they will go to Tokyo if the qualify. Let us hope that this is indeed the case.

Despite that good news, the game is clearly still struggling in Africa, and players have had to pay their own accommodation at the event.

This may come as a shock to many as Hockey pushes to be taken seriously as a tier one sport. Especially after the International body launched the FIH Pro League this year, a league that all were told was going to change the game forever.

However is it a case of the money that is there in the sport is being chewed up at the top and not reaching the other lower-ranked nations that need help in growing the game?

As featured on Podcast #67 we heard from the captain of the Canadian women’s team Kate Wright, and she explained how the whole squad had left their homes in Canada and moved to Europe to get more game time and training together. They paid their own way to get Test Match practice in, and fund raised to attend the Hockey Series finals. Here they made the finals which meant that they would play in the Olympic Qualifiers if they were unable to win Gold at the Pan American Games. They didn’t win Gold, but made the final for the first time since 1991. There may be an omen in that, in that their last Olympic Games appearance was in 1992 following a Pan Am games loss to Argentina. Will history repeat? If they qualify will it again be a case of more Crowdfunding to get to Tokyo?

Canada defeated the USA in their semi final. The USA men also fell in their semi final. Both teams taking home the bronze medal. Despite that performance the USA men may well miss out on a place in the Olympic Qualifiers due to their World Ranking, however the women should still have a second chance to qualify for Tokyo.

This could be more important for Field Hockey than anyone realises, as in February 2020 the sports for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles will be announced. With the USA women dropping down the rankings the feeling is that the Local Organising Committee will want to drop eleven-a-side in favour of five-a -side competition. (Coming Full Circle)

The worrying fact is that the USA women’s program has not been short of financial support. The team has however declined in the past seven years and having qualified for the past two Olympic Games face the prospect of failing to qualify for Tokyo. When one considers that the women’s program received close to USD$3m in investment to the men’s USD$400,000 in 2018 clearly where the money is being spent needs closer attention.

In the men’s game globally the sport has already witnessed mayhem ensue because there was no one keeping an eye on where the money was going. Mis-Management of the highest order has seen one of the world powers within the game, Pakistan, tumble down the world rankings. Not only that their late withdrawal from the FIH Pro League after it had started saw them facing a two year ban from International competition. This was not upheld and they have been granted permission to participate in the Olympic qualifiers should their own World Ranking not fall any further. ( A Fine? No Thanks)

All of these teams are not low-ranking nations such as those who have withdrawn from the African Championships. In the FIH’s June 2019 World Ranking for Men Uganda were not ranked and Nigeria were 57th. In the Women’s game again Uganda were not ranked but Nigeria were 47th.

Yet South Africa’s men are ranked 14th. Pakistan men are ranked 17th. South Africa’s women are also in the top twenty teams sitting at 16th, Canada are 18th and the USA 13th.

The trouble for the game is not just limited to the teams outside the top ten, if rumours are to be believed Germany suffered a huge financial loss from their participation in the FIH Pro League, and Australia, who claimed first place in the Men’s competition and second place in the women’s which saw their world rankings move to first and second respectively, only just managed to turn a profit; some saying courtesy of the prize money won by both teams.

So where is all the money going? The International Olympic Committee gives the sport USD$15million over four years in order to grow the game. Which is not a huge amount over a four year period, but backed by well run events, television income and sponsorship there should be more support for the National Associations. What revenue are their respective Confederations and National Associations generating and passing on, along with that brought in by the FIH?

There are many who are saying that the sport globally needs to cut its cloth according to its coat. In other words if the budget only allows for Polyester don’t order a woollen or mink coat!

In the past week there have been redundancies announced at the FIH head office and our sympathies go out to those who lost their jobs. However will the culling of a few of the lower paid staff really turn the ship around?

For a start should the World’s governing body not be looking to leave Switzerland?

In a recently updated table (August2019) ranking countries by their cost of living, Switzerland was ranked third behind the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong as having the highest cost of living. So why would a company struggling for money choose to base itself in a location where it is going to cost more to operate?

If the sport wanted a central global location with easy access to Lausanne for Olympic related reasons, Great Britain came in 32nd on the same report, Germany was 30th. The Netherlands, the spiritual home of the game was 16th but still 50 index points below Switzerland. The United Arab Emirates where the International Cricket Council is now based was rated 33rd. Would not some of these countries offer similar incentives to Switzerland to have a World body located in their country?

The wages of the top nine staff at the FIH come in at a total close to USD1.5million a year. On top of that all receive 12% of their salary in a pension fund. There are a number who have company cars, and others with generous Car Allowances. However, one of the biggest costs, and is a reason why so many staff move from Olympic sport to Olympic sport, is they receive relocation funding. The FIH has paid generous relocation costs to staff to move to Lausanne, but of course if they leave and wish to return to their homeland, they must pay their own costs. It must be stated that they are not alone in this practice, nearly every Olympic sport with offices in Lausanne offers a similar package. There are 55 International Sporting associations currently based in the city.

Lausanne proudly boasts of its 28-station metro system. It is the smallest city in the world to have a rapid transit system, which makes one wonder how necessary a car is. Especially as this is not a big city, with a population of around 140,000.

It is not the easiest city to fly to for meetings. Which raises another question, do the Executive Board need to fly Business class? Quick calculations reveal that the business class air fares to one Executive Board meeting would pay the economy air fares for the Canadian team to fly to Tokyo. When put in this context one has to ask if those travel costs are best serving the game?

Can the sport seriously afford such costs when teams are pulling out of tournaments? Can it afford for board members and committee members to be flown around the world when they could use technology and have on-line meetings?

It is not just in Head Office that the cloth needs to be cut according to the coat but also amongst the Confederations, and clearly in some National bodies.

According to the Statutes of the FIH in section 1.4 A it states “The fundamental purposes of the FIH are: to promote and develop Hockey at all levels throughout the world, in accordance with the rights and freedoms of the Olympic Charter, and without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status;”

Article 11 of the Statutes, – The Foundation For The Promotion And Development of Hockey – which were amended at the last Congress in 2018, reveals that the “FIH has founded the Foundation for the Promotion and Development of Hockey, headquartered in Switzerland. The purpose of the foundation is to promote and develop Hockey throughout the world, especially as part of the Olympic movement and in collaboration with the FIH; the purpose notably is to develop the vocation, improve the quality of sport, encourage the growth of the sport and lend assistance to organisations involved with Hockey within the framework defined by the official bodies, in particular the FIH.”

The Foundation states that it has the same role as the FIH! (see italics) So why has it been created, unless by forming the Foundation the FIH attracts more funding? If it is to “lend assistance to organisations involved with Hockey within the framework defined by the official bodies,” in what form is that assistance being given? Clearly not financial as we still have teams withdrawing from sanctioned tournaments.

If the integrity of competitions are being harmed because teams cannot afford to take part there is clearly a big problem, as without the players playing there is no sport. This has to be the main focus for the next few years, making sure that every national body is being run in a way that if it qualifies for an international tournament it has the financial ability to attend. In addition, a minimum wage should be put in place for players and officials when playing and officiating in tournaments. It is not fair that they dedicate their time to train and play and receive nothing or a pittance, and in some cases pay to play, while those at the top are flying to the same tournament simply to network in the VIP boxes, and are paid.

This sporting model is doomed to fail, and clearly it is. Some strong decisions need to be made in terms of funding and the division of sponsorship dollars to the athletes. There needs to be an overhaul of the management structures to trim back costs and also to safeguard the future of the game and those who play it.

At this point it time no matter how good the quality of the hockey is, if players cannot make it to tournaments the sport is never going to be able to make the leap from a second tier sport to first.

Yet with the Olympic Games just around the corner no national body, no matter how cash-strapped is going to speak up. However, if one team that makes the Olympic qualifiers has to withdraw because they do not have the funds to travel away to play their opponent, then suddenly what is at present a murmur may become a roar. As the integrity of the qualifiers for what is deemed as the sport’s pinnacle event will be jeopardised. Hopefully this does not happen. If it doesn’t wait until after Tokyo 2020.

Which means the next year is vital in terms of remodelling the structure and financing of the sport globally, and in many cases nationally. Many nations may need help with that, and hopefully the FIH has the staff with the skills to provide that advice and support.