LAHORE: The incumbent management of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), having completely lost its credibility owing to its failure to get good results from the national hockey team as well as over misuse of funds, has unashamedly come out seeking the government’s grant once again on the pretext of sending the team to play against Argentina on Feb 2 in the first leg of the FIH Pro League.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, associate secretary Ayaz Mahmood said the participation of the team in the FIH’s Pro League will only be possible if the government releases the required funds.

Flanked by national team coach Danish Kaleem, Ayaz said: “The PHF needs nearly Rs 30 million to send the national team to Argentina for the first leg of the FIH pro league while a total of Rs 100 million to 120 million will be required for Pakistan’s participation in the entire league.”

“At the moment, the PHF has only Rs 10.75 million in its kitty and it needs timely financial support from the government to meet the deficit,” associate secretary Ayaz said.

While disclosing the break-up of the previous grants received from the government, Ayaz said, “The current PHF regime has been in place for the last three and a half years. During this period, the PHF received a total govt grant of Rs 540 million including Rs 320 million from the federal and Rs 220 million from the Sindh government, besides Rs 2000000 from the Punjab government.”

To a question Ayaz admitted that the government’s reluctance to inject more funds into hockey could be due to the damaged credibility and wrongdoings of the past federations.

It may be mentioned that Ayaz was appointed as associate secretary by president PHF Brig. (retd.) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar just a few weeks backs after Olympian Shahbaz Senior resigned as secretary PHF.

Meanwhile, while highlighting the importance of Pakistan in the FIH Pro League, Danish said Pakistan could not only improve its rankings and could also confirm the qualification for the upcoming Olympics.

Shahbaz was forced to resign amid many charges of corruption that the PHF faced on several counts while the national team too failed to earn any worthwhile laurel for the country. Ayaz is yet to get the vote of the congress since he was directly appointed by president PHF by using his constitutional powers.

“Mere participation in the Pro League would give Pakistan a large number of FIH ranking points,” he said. Canada (10th) and Ireland (11th) in the FIH rankings are not part of the Pro League. Hence, our presence in the Pro League should enable Pakistan (placed 12th) to easily go past these countries in the FIH rankings which will increase our chances to qualify for the 2020 Olympics,” Danish said.

Moreover, the experience of playing 16 matches against world’s top teams would be a wonderful exposure for our young team,” he pointed out.

To a question Ayaz said Pakistan could face FIH’s ban which could bar the country from participation in any international event. “Besides a hefty fine in cash could be imposed too.”

“In all probability, hockey is the lone hope for Pakistan’s presence at the 2020 Olympics through qualification, otherwise, it won’t be different from the 2016 Olympics when not a single sports person could qualify from world’s fifth largest country. The seven Pakistani entrants only came through quota spots/wild card, Ayaz said.

It may be mentioned that Pakistan’s participation in the last year World Cup held in December in India was also in doldrums due to financial problems. But the federal government did not issue any grant to the PHF but Sindh government helped it out by issuing a grant of Rs 100 million. Besides that, private sponsor also lent a helping hand by issuing the funds amounting to Rs 20 million.

Despite that, the PHF claims it has only Rs 10.75million in the kitty which means it has spent Rs 118.2m5 in just one month’s time — from the World Cup till now — which is indeed quite alarming.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2019