Muscat, Nov 9 (IANS): Incumbent Tayyab Ikram was, on Saturday, re-elected as President of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) on the occasion of the 49th FIH Statutory Congress in the Oman capital.
On the occasion, the FIH President also announced the launch of a global mental health project for athletes, as well as the launch of athletes and development portals on FIH.hockey. The appointment of Eduardo Mario Guelfand (Argentina) as Judicial Commission President was also ratified.
Danae Andrada (URU), Alberto Daniel Budeisky (ARG), and Erik Cornelissen (NED) were re-elected and Katrin Kauschke (GER) was elected as Ordinary Members of the FIH Executive Board. Before the election, Hazel Kennedy (ZAM) and Deon James Morgan (RSA) withdrew their candidature.
Reacting to his re-election as FIH President, Tayyab Ikram said: “My heart is full of gratitude for the trust you’ve placed in me. Many of you have told me that a lot has been achieved in the last two years and that FIH is now much closer to you. However, today, I feel that this is my first day. You’ve given me a new start! I will continue this journey. It will be a time of engagement, a time of empowerment. Athletes are and will remain, my first priority. They need to be at the centre of everything FIH does.”
As an additional sign confirming the steady growth of hockey worldwide, Congress approved the application of six new members, namely Bahrain, Chad, Curacao, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, and Senegal. This brings the overall number of FIH members to 146, the FIH informed in a release on Saturday.
In his President’s report at the beginning of proceedings, Tayyab Ikram tackled some key strategic priorities, such as the FIH empowerment and engagement strategy, athletes’ welfare, hockey development or events. He highlighted specifically some of the major accomplishments of FIH since the last Congress:
He also informed that the Junior World Cup has been expanded to 24 teams while Nations Cup and Nations Cup 2 have been introduced for the second-rung teams hoping to make it to the FIH Pro League. The report also informed that the Hockey5s World Cup will be organised with much-enhanced accessibility.
Ikram also said that the sport had a tremendous social media presence during the Olympic Games Paris 2024 with 31 million video views, 225.000 new followers, and 125 million impressions.