LAHORE: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Asif Bajwa on Wednesday said backdoor diplomacy with their Argentina, Holland and New Zealand counterparts in the disciplinary case before the FIH has produced healthy results as so far the federation has not only managed to reduce the expected amount of penalty from $190,000 to $80,000, but also it has bright chances to play the qualifying round for the 2020 Olympics.

Talking to Dawn, Bajwa said PHF president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar successfully pleaded the case in Lausanne, Switzerland before the FIH disciplinary committee, which could in the first place fine the PHF $190,000 for not fielding the national team in the inaugural Pro League staged early this year, despite confirming the entry two years before.

He said the PHF was in contact with Argentina, Holland and New Zealand, against all of whom Pakistan had to play the first leg of the Pro League from January to June this year, pleading the case to withdraw their claim of $30,000 each as penalty on Pakistan.

“Argentina and Holland have withdrawn their claims while the negotiations are still on with New Zealand to give up their claim. Hopefully, the negotiations will pay dividends and the PHF will only be required pay a fine of $50,000 to the FIH, which has also been reduced from originally expected amount of $100,000,” Bajwa said.

Pakistan maybe allowed to play Tokyo 2020 qualifiers

“The FIH could fine $100,000 but it reduced it to half with the instruction to use the remission amount of $50,000 on the grassroots activities,” he further said.

He said the PHF had also succeeded in getting the FIH nod on allowing Pakistan to play the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers, which was not possible, earlier.

According to Bajwa, Pakistan had to pay $50,000 to the FIH in three installments of $17500 each and after depositing the first installment the PHF would also submit its request for the Olympic qualifying round scheduled to be held in September-October this year.

It may be mentioned that the PHF could not field the national team in the Pro League, claiming it has no funds to meet the expenses of the tour of three countries — Argentina, Holland and New Zealand.

Though the FIH had granted the PHF the facility to play their home matches against the three teams away, in these three countries, as it would reduce Pakistani federation’s expenses of hosting the teams at home, the PHF still failed to complete its commitment.

Despite PHF’s appeals to the federal government for releasing a special grant to the federation amounting to Rs220 million -- which had already been approved by the previous government of the PML-N -- the incumbent government of PTI showed its reluctance in issuing the grant citing misuse of the previous funds.

There are also reports that even the players of Pakistan team were ready not to take their daily allowances in order to share PHF’s financial burden, still the federation could not complete its Pro League commitment.

According to some reports, the PHF had some funds in its kitty, it had saved from the special grant of Rs100 million issued by the Sindh government to the federation on an SOS call to field the national team at the 2018 World Cup. But the PHF management headed by Brig Khokhar preferred to leave the event rather to completing his commitment.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2019