Columns about hockey
**Estimated reading time: 3 minutes** Today the administrators from 126 hockey countries (14 could not even be bothered) around the world voted in Tayyab Ikram as president of the FIH. As predicted… The reason is simple. The FIH has 140 members (= countries with national associations or NA). Each NA has 1 vote in the elections. Regardless if you represent an […]
**Estimated reading time: 15 minutes** Ahead of the very important FIH congress on November 4 & 5 of 2022 we brought together a couple of hockey people from around the world, from different walks of life and with different roles in our game of hockey. The idea was to ask them the same questions I asked the two candidates for […]
**Estimated reading time: 9 minutes** On November 5 a battle between very different philosophies in our sport will be decided for the next few years, maybe decades. In short the difference can be summed up as “play for pay” vs “pay to play” or also “grow the fan base first” vs “grow the player base first” Two very different candidates […]
**Estimated reading time: 2 minutes** These next months might prove to be crucial for the future of our sport… While the fans still celebrate (or mourn) the Netherlands taking a 3rd world cup in a row in women’s hockey… For the more engaged follower of our sport the day after was marked by the resignation of Narinder Batra as FIH […]
**Estimated reading time: 6 minutes** In a round table organised by Studio Hockey on June 20 Thierry Weil, the CEO of the FIH and Angus Kirkland, CEO of the EHF, met with representatives of the top clubs in Europe. Clubs were feeling they were not heard by their own NA’s (national associations). They feel the international calendar makes it hard […]
**Estimated reading time: 3 minutes** Sport is simple… You find a couple of friends and start playing together. If you do not have any friends you choose an individual sport. If you do have friends you like hanging out with, you get to play a teamsport. Maybe hockey? Lucky you 😉 The next step is you get bored of always […]
**Estimated reading time: 2 minutes** When last year mr. Batra got re-elected as the FIH president I wrote “We deserve better” with an open letter to the administrators of our sport. In it I wanted to make two points: The number 1 priority is getting more people to PLAY the sport, not WATCH the sport. Transparency & accountability in governing […]
**Estimated reading time: 8 minutes** Why we play hockey (or any sport) is a question that has many answers. It’s not only different because of where we live. Our “why” for playing hockey is different for many reasons. And for obvious reasons the different why’s also makes the “how we play hockey” is very different around the world. TL;DRWe are […]
**Estimated reading time: 2 minutes** With parts of the world somewhat returning to “normal” lives some of us are very happy to see the return of hockey in front of an audience. The best hockey of the world is still the game played in front of a home crowd. Wether that be the national teams playing international games in their […]
**Estimated reading time: 3 minutes** They say you always get what you deserve… Having witnessed the FIH congress last week I state: “we deserve better”! So last Saturday Narinder Batra got re-elected as president of the FIH with 63 votes vs 61 for his opponent Marc Coudron. A close race. Where some have openly questioned the addition of 3 countries […]
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