KARACHI, July 23: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Monday said although it had no plans to shift December’s Champions Trophy from Lahore owing to security concerns, the tournament may yet move to another venue if political situation changed dramatically.

“For the moment, the FIH will organise the Champions Trophy in Lahore in December. This can of course change when the political situation changes dramatically,” FIH communications manager, Arjen Meijer, told Dawn from Lausanne.

Over 200 people, including several foreigners, have been killed in July alone in a series of bomb blasts following a military operation against the militants at Lal Masjid in Islamabad, causing concern for the visiting teams.

The FIH spokesman said a number of meetings of hockey’s international ruling body were scheduled next month in which security and political scenario in Pakistan may come up for discussions though it was not on the original agenda.

The FIH meeting in Beijing between Aug 7 and 11 — to be attended by president Els van Breda, secretary Peter Cohen, vice-presidents and the treasurer — will be the most important one at which future events including Lahore’s Champions Trophy will be discussed.

“There are many different meetings scheduled in Beijing. But the most important is the one to be attended by the top officials. During these different meetings, the future events will, as usual, be discussed.

“The events to be discussed will be the Beijing Olympic Games, 2010 World Cup, qualification tournaments for Olympics and the Champions Trophy 2008, 2009 and 2010. The Champions Trophy in Lahore is one of the tournaments to be discussed but until then, no decision regarding that event could be taken,” explained the FIH official.

The official confirmed that Australia had refused to visit Pakistan on the advice of their government because of security fears.

Meijer, who visited Lahore in April along with the FIH events manager Dennis Meredith to inspect the facilities, said since Aussies had been advised by their government not to participate in the elite six-nation tournament, FIH would not object on their pulling out of the event.

“At this moment, the FIH received a letter from Australia that they will not participate (in the Champions Trophy). The FIH took notice of this message. We respect the decision from Australia. They wrote to us that the FIH did everything it could to get Australia at the Champions Trophy in Lahore but they had to follow their government’s advice,” said the FIH spokesman.

The official, however, said that although only Kookaburras had informed about their decision of skipping the tournament at the moment, the FIH was monitoring the advice of the governments of other participating countries too.

“We have asked other countries involved to check the situation with their government. We are also monitoring on a daily basis the advice of the governments of the countries involved.”

The capital of Punjab, Lahore — the birthplace of the prestigious Champions Trophy — is scheduled to host the event which is considered one of the toughest and challenging of all from Dec 1 to 9. The countries that have qualified to participate are Olympic champions Australia, Spain, Germany, South Korea, the Netherlands apart from hosts Pakistan who instituted the trophy in 1978.

The FIH official was not very forthcoming about which country could replace Australia or about the fate of other teams.

“At this moment, I cannot confirm which team or teams will replace the teams that will not participate in the Lahore Champions Trophy. It will be decided later.”

While Australia’s absence will take some gloss off the tournament, it will even be a bigger blow to Pakistan and its hockey federation if the event is shifted to another country because of security problems. The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) is already struggling to cajole the foreign teams to play in Pakistan.

Hockey Australia, the governing body of the game in the country, had also pulled out its team from 2004 Champions Trophy — which was also played in Lahore, citing security concerns as the reason.

The FIH had also shifted the 2001 Champions Trophy from Lahore to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, following terror attacks in New York and Washington and an imminent US strike against neighbouring Afghanistan.