The International Hockey Federation (FIH) will create a task force to work on its global award selection process, which has caused “outrage” and “disappointment” this year, but its CEO Thierry Weil insisted that the winners – they are not all Indians – Will have stayed apart even without the votes of the fans.
India won at the FIH annual awards last Wednesday, claiming all the top honors based on a voting system that was slammed as a “failure” by men’s Olympic champions Belgium, the global body said. Motivated that he would try to find out why some unions didn’t put up. His ballot.
Many in the hockey world questioned whether it was really a good idea for fans to vote for an award meant to define the best athletes and coaches from a technical standpoint.
However, the award winners topped each voting group which also included national associations and the media.
“Our overall strategy at FIH is to put athletes and fans at the center of everything we do. Therefore, it is necessary to give the fans the option to express their views. We will definitely need to analyze it if the current process is correct in this regard,” Weil said in an interview published by FIH.
The votes of the national associations – represented by their respective captains and coaches – accounted for 50 percent of the total result, while fans and players (25 percent) as well as the media (25 percent) made up the other half of the vote.
It should be noted that only 19 federations of the 42-strong European bloc cast their vote, while 29 of 33 in Asia voted.
“…Obviously we need to engage the fans one way or another. After all, thanks to this vote, we will have the opportunity to engage with almost 300,000 fans. It’s not only good for India – Where most of these fans are coming from – but also good for the overall development of our sport and therefore for the hockey community as a whole.
“Furthermore, as we noted on vote day, all winning athletes topped the standings in each of the three voting groups. In other words, even if the fans had not voted, the winning athletes were the same. would have been.”
Five Indian players and head coaches from both men’s and women’s teams claimed the top honors in various categories after garnering maximum votes at the Tokyo Olympics. The men’s hockey team won the bronze medal at the Games for the first time in 41 years, while the women’s side finished an unprecedented fourth in the showpiece.
When asked whether the voting process would continue to be the same in the future, Weil spoke of setting up a task force.
“I can’t answer this question before we do a thorough analysis. But I can tell you that we will be working with the global hockey community on future Stars Awards.
“We will engage with a number of stakeholders to come up with a process that has the support of the majority, and then go through with it for the next year.
“These awards are here to promote hockey, athletes and coaches. It’s no good for anyone if they cause controversy. I have already engaged with some people and will continue to do so. We will form a task force to look into it.”
He is “convinced” that everyone involved in the sport will reach a consensus and celebrate these awards in the future.
Weil agreed that the absence of players from the Olympic gold medal-winning teams would cause frustration and anger.
“If, in an Olympic year, the gold medalists don’t win any prizes and the other country gets all of them, it’s clear it won’t bode well. So, I’m certainly disappointed and, to some extent, special. I definitely understand the anger of the teams concerned.
“Also, I want to congratulate the winners. They were all nominated by the FIH, the FIH Athletes Committee and an expert committee made up of high performance representatives and therefore deserved as much as others to win.
“And both the Indian teams had a great performance at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. I think the natural joy they should have felt by winning such an award must have been replaced by all this, and that’s not good either,” Weil said. said. .
India’s Harmanpreet Singh won the Men’s Player of the Year award and Gurjit Kaur was recognized as the best player in the women’s category.
Veterans PR Sreejesh and Savita Punia won the best goalkeeper awards in the men’s and women’s categories, while young strikers Sharmila Devi (women) and Vivek Sagar Prasad (men) were declared the best rising stars.
Asked if the current voting process is correct, Weil said it involves the sport’s stakeholders, though he did not call it ideal. He also said that the voting process was more or less the same as last year.
“There were two differences. We have made it mandatory for national associations that their vote should come from the coaches and captains of their national team; I am sure everyone will agree that it is the right thing to do to increase the technical validity of the vote.” There was work.
“Second, the voting process for coaches was the same as for athletes this time around (whereas the FIH Coach of the Year award was previously determined by the FIH panel).”
Weil was asked why almost half of the National Associations (NAs) did not take the opportunity to vote.
“I have personally contacted several members of the hockey community to be warned about this situation, and I know they were proactive.
“But still, many national associations did not cast their vote. Clearly this had by far the biggest impact on the results. If you constitute a jury, but half of it does not vote, how can you expect people to accept the results unanimously?
“In our analysis, we have to establish why this situation occurred.”
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