LAHORE, Dec 4: The Pakistan Hockey Federation Council will meet at the National Hockey Stadium (NHS) on Dec 21 to discuss and approve the new structure of the federation under the devolution plan.

The PHF secretary Brig Mussaratullah Khan told journalists on Tuesday that the main agenda of the meeting was to change the divisional base structure of the federation to district level, according to the new sports policy.

He pointed out that the meeting had nothing much to do with the matters of the national team and its management for the next World Cup to be held in Malaysia next year.

The PHF secretary said that all decisions regarding the team management would be taken by the mid of December. He said that the national training camp would be held at the National Hockey Stadium from Dec 24 to prepare Pakistan team for the World Cup.

He said that the manager’s report on the 23rd Champions Trophy held at Rotterdam (Holland) had been received by the federation. The reports had explained certain reasons behind Pakistan team’s poor fourth position in six team competition.

However, Mussaratullah Khan said that he did not agree with the manager on some of the reasons.

He said that the Pakistan had made an informal bid for World Cup-2006 (Seniors) and World Cup 2005 (Juniors) to the International Hockey Federation FIH). The PHF would enter formal bids later.

The PHF secretary said that Pakistan was trying to get the 24th Champions Trophy-2003 as a compensation of the 23rd edition which was held at Rotterdam (Holland) from Nov 4 to 11 after shifting from Lahore due to security reasons.

He said that if allotted, it would be a good compensation for Pakistan.

He said that some indications were received that England which had been allotted Champions trophy 2003 was reluctant to hold the men’s competition and was more interested in only staging Champions Trophy for Women. He said that a final decision in this regard was likely to be taken by the FIH in a week.