Tayyab Ikram elected FIH President; wants to assess tournament structure, work on finances, development of sport

Lausanne (Switzerland), Nov 5 (IANS) Tayyab Ikram of Macau was on Saturday elected as president of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to complete the remaining period of the term vacant after India's Dr. Narinder Dhruv Batra resigned in July and soon after, expressed his desire to assess the tournament structure of hockey, improve finances and work for the overall development of the sport.

Ikram, the CEO of the Asian Hockey Federatiomn (AHF), was elected to a two-year term on Saturday in the FIH Congress, held virtually, beating Belgium's Marc Coudron by bagging more than half of the 126 votes submitted by the member National Associations, attaining the required absolute majority.

Ikram received 79 votes to 47 by Coudron, the FIH informed in a release on Saturday.

"Hockey is my passion, hockey has changed my life and I'm thankful to hockey and the hockey family for this. I express my gratitude to all of you for the confidence you've given me today. I promise you that I will carry the message of solidarity and bring the FIH together," the new FIH President Tayyab Ikram was quoted as saying by the FIH.

Soon after his election, Ikram said he would like to re-assess the tournament structure worldwide and bring in changes to make it more sustainable and more accessible to people in developing countries.

"We have to review tournament structure as events are not being held as we wanted due to the Covid-19 pandemic," Ikram said during a virtual press conference post his election here.

He said he was a great fan of the discontinued Champions Trophy, an event involving elite teams, but restarting it would be a decision that the entire FIH will have to discuss.

Asked whether introducing more tournaments will not lead to a clash with the club leagues being held in elite nations, Ikram said, "That is something we need to address. I have my suggestions on that. Club hockey is going on in some regions but not in all regions".

"We have to assess a few things. If this is club hockey, it is an opportunity for our players. But it is not spread around and therefore opportunities are limited. so, we have to assess all these issues before taking a decision," said Ikram, who has had a long stint with FIH as a Master Coach and member of various committees related to the development of the sport.

The newly-elected FIH President said the Covid-19 pandemic had greatly disrupted the tournament structure worldwide in the last couple of years and therefore there is a need to re-assess it to incorporate the lessons learned during this period.

"The pandemic and online engagement has given us some new lessons. we have achieved very good results so far and we will be assessing this in the line of the lessons learned in the last few years," he said.

Ikram asserted that improving the finances of FIH following the Covid-19 pandemic and the FIH financially more stable. Because of the pandemic, the FIH had to take a loan from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

He said the welfare of athletes is his priority. "Benchmarking ourselves at the Olympic Games and in the Olympic family is our priority. We have to benchmark ourselves stronger and stay in the Olympic programme," he added.