KARACHI: The secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Shahbaz Ahmed on Monday said plans are afoot to launch Pakistan-FIH Hockey Pro League in Glasgow next year.

“Glasgow will become home to Pakistan hockey once the ball is set rolling,” he told Dawn. Shahbaz and PHF president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar recently visited Glasgow and held discussions with the Scottish Hockey officials in this regard.

“We’ve discussed ways and means for the successful launch of the Pro-League and it will involve some $2,00,000,” he said.

According to the PHF secretary, Glasgow will serve as home ground for Pakistan for bilateral series against various hockey playing nations.

Meanwhile, Scottish Hockey has expressed its pleasure to announce that Pakistan men’s team will play their home matches of the FIH new game-changing Hockey Pro League at the Glasgow National Hockey Centre.

“The PHF was looking for a neutral venue with a track record of delivering world-class hockey events for their home matches, and found Glasgow as the ideal location. The Glasgow National Hockey Centre, a 2014 Commonwealth Games legacy venue, will now host Pakistan’s home matches in the FIH Hockey Pro League from 2019 until 2023,” the Scottish Hockey said in a statement.

The men’s FIH Hockey Pro League will feature Pakistan, England/Great Britain, Australia, India, Argentina, Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, and the Nether­lands, and will run from January until June each year from 2019 for a minimum of four years. The competition is a new initiative where the world’s top teams play each other in a series of televised globally home and away matches, leading to Olympic and World Cup qualification.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2018