KARACHI, Nov 13: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Tuesday said it will award a major hockey event to Pakistan as compensation for the Champions Trophy as soon as the political situation in the country became normal.

An FIH spokesman said that it was decided during an FIH Executive Board meeting in New Delhi that the top international teams will return to Pakistan for a major event as soon as the political situation allowed them to do so.

It was due to some unfortunate, non-sport issues that the FIH was forced to take the decision to move the 2007 Champions Trophy from Lahore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last month.

The FIH Executive Board gathered in New Delhi for its bi-annual meetings this week. One of the major points on FIH’s agenda was the progress report on the 2010 Men’s World Cup which will take place in New Delhi, India. The Chairman of the recently formed World Cup Governing Board, Andre Bolhuis reported on the first meeting and the next meeting will now take place in February 2008.

Furthermore, the FIH Executive Board received the information from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) that the Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium in New Delhi will be ready for use in October 2009. This is exactly one year before the start of the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and gives FIH the possibility to test the stadium prior to the 2010 World Cup.

One of the major decisions of the FIH Executive Board was the allocation of the 2008 FIH Statutory Congress. This biennial gathering of all the National Associations and FIH Committees will take place in Los Angeles, USA in November 2008. The FIH will organize this week of important meetings in cooperation with USA Field Hockey and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). USOC guaranteed the FIH that all participants will be able to obtain a visa for the USA when their application is received in time.

The FIH Executive Board also discussed the allocation of future events. USA Field Hockey will host the 2009 Women’s Junior World Cup at Harvard University in Boston. Malaysia and Singapore will co-host the 2009 Men’s Junior World Cup.

In order to directly qualify both organizers for the event, the FIH Executive Board decided that the 2009 Men’s Junior World Cup will exceptionally be played with 20 instead of 16 teams.

A new world level event will take place in Dubai, UAE early 2009. The best eight men’s and best eight women’s teams of the world will participate in this new event.

The FIH will also actively participate in the ‘Zambia Project Sports for Hope’, a cooperation between the IOC and different international federations. The FIH will assist in the construction of a hockey pitch at a newly constructed national sports centre in Zambia, which will be used for the 2011 All African Games. Fundraising for the Zambia Project will be done at the 2008 Samsung Champions Trophy women in Monchengladbach, Germany and the 2008 World Hockey Champions Trophy men in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

The next FIH Executive Board meeting will be held in March 2008 at the FIH Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.—Agencies