Two formats in hockey is the way forward, aim is to attract youth: Negre

WITH AN AIM to spread hockey to more countries across the world, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has scripted an ambitious 10-year programme called 'The Hockey Revolution', that is set to revamp every aspect of the game, including the traditional format.

The programme was launched at the end of last year, and will be setting goals for the FIH until 2024. 

"We have started is what is called 'Hockey Revolution' in our Congress last year. Revolution means we need to do changes and these changes have to be implemented as soon as possible. Now in the world of sports it is very important to be proactive. If you are sleeping you are losing on opportunities," FIH president Leandro Negre told a select group of journalist covering the Hockey World League (HWL) Finals at the Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Stadium in Raipur, as reported by PTI. 

Negre insisted that Hockey 5s -- his personal favourite and a format that is currently part of the Youth Olympics was the way forward for hockey.

“Our dream is to have both Hockey 11s and Hockey 5s in the Olympics. Sports like gymnastics and swimming have several disciplines, why cannot hockey too?

“In the Nanjing Youth Olympics, Zambia thrashed Germany in the Hockey 5s. Imagine if it plays the same game in the Olympics... instead of having one, why not both formats? But that is in the future. At the moment, our first step is to bring the youth into the game because the youth are the future. Youth in India, China, the African nations…” said Negre according to report published in The Hindu.

Negre's primary goal is to attract the youth in every country, as they will be responsible for the growth of the sport in future. He also said that India has the biggest scope for development, and that hockey 5s should be taken to every corner, especially schools. 

“We want to take the game into the smartphones of the youth. India remains important for us, there is a lot of scope for further development here. When I took over, there were maybe 25 pitches in the country; now there are over 100, but there can be many more. We have to take the game into the schools, that’s where Hockey 5s becomes important,” he added.

Even though Negre said that smartphones are the future of communication, the FIH is yet to develop a mobile application. However, the world body hinted towards developing one.

"We need to generate million of followers in the world through communications and social media. We need a very exciting and nice product and in the last few years we have started to work on that front and the big example of that is the Hockey World League which gives opportunities to everybody. We need to spread hockey in 160 countries in the world and not just the top six countries.