NO NATIONAL PLAYERS FOR RAZAK CUP

With the zonal qualifying tournament to be held before the Azlan Shah Cup, players called up for the national team are expected to sit out.

However they will be able to play the Razak Cup proper as it will be held in July.

The MHF Competition Committee had in it's meeting on Feb 19 decided that the qualifying tournaments, to be played at zonal level, must be held between April and June.

Hence national players will not be able to represent their state teams for the April first leg matches.

And if the second leg matches are held in June, then the national players will also have to sit out as they will be preparing and participating in the Four Nation Invitational Tournament in Russia.

However there could yet be a loophole if the states playing host decide to hold the qualifying tournament a week after the Azlan Shah that is scheduled from May 5-15.

With each team allowed to register 30 players for the tournament, some states could well use the opportunity to blood talented youngsters.

Penang and Kedah will host the north zone qualifiers , while Kuala Lumpur have been given the right to play host to both legs in the absence of bids from Perak or Selangor.

The east zonal qualifier will see Terengganu and Pahang playing host while the south zone has Johor and Malacca respectively.

However with the pitches in Taman Daya out of commission for the next few months, it could most likely see Malacca playing hosts to both legs.

The Taman Daya Stadium require RM1 million to get back into shape.

CHANGES IN COACHING SET UP?

There are indications that the coaching set up of the national team could well see some changes when the Management Committee of the MHF meets in Malacca this Saturday.

And the vocal Stephen van Huizen could well pay the price for speaking out on issues affecting his assistant Tai Beng Hai at the last Management Meeting held on January 29.

Stephen raised the issue with regards to the salary of Beng Hai as well as the delay in providing a new contract both for Beng Hai and him. And he also stated his displeasure that the issue had dragged on for too long despite the national team finishing their assignment at the Asian Games in November.

Though Stephen had raised this matter at the National Team Management Committee meeting held on January 16, the slow or rather lack of initiative led him to spill the beans infront of the MHF President.

And Stephen went a step further, by asking MHF to consider naming Beng hai as the Chief Coach and in the process redesignate him.

This riled up the Deputy President and his henchman in the MHF Committee and the process of eliminating Stephen began from then.

Though the President met up with Beng Hai, Stephen was not invited for the meeting.

And when the MHF Deputy President and Hon. Secretary attended the JKK Meeting ( Joint Committee ) with the NSC, it was told that a decision on the coach will be done on Feb 26.

Here is where it gets interesting as the meeting was also informed that the MHF President had rejected the proposal from Stephen to re-designate him.

So will Stephen pay the price for speaking up against the injustice his assistant had to endure?

We shall await the outcome on Feb 26 and have been told that it will remain status quo. Let's see.

WORLD LEAGUE

Explanatory Note about the Format of World League

The FIH World League will be played over 4 rounds over a 2 year period, with the Rounds 1 and 2 of the first competition taking place in 2012 and Round 3 and Round 4, the final of the competition, being played in 2013. However, 2012 is going a busy year calendar-wise with Olympic Games Qualifying tournaments, Champions Trophies, Champions Challenges and the Olympic Games all being played. If any country wishes to play a Round 1 tournament before the end of 2011, FIH will be sympathetic to any such suggestion.
 

Format

 

Teams ranked 1 – 8 in the FIH World Ranking as at 1 January 2011 will be granted a bye through to Round 3; teams ranked 9 – 16 in the FIH World Ranking as at 1 January 2011 will be granted a bye through to Round 2. 

 

Note: All teams must enter by the closing date of Friday, 1 April 2011. This includes teams with byes into Rounds 2 and 3. If a team with a bye does not enter, it will be replaced by the next highest ranked country.

 

World Ranking points will be awarded to teams at all levels of the FIH World League. Further details of the amount of Ranking Points will follow in due course.

 

Any team that hosts a tournament that it has not qualified for by performance at a previous round, will be allowed to play in that tournament but at the end of the tournament its ranking and the Ranking Points it is awarded will be from the tournament where it was eliminated.

 

The number of tournaments in Round 1 will depend entirely on the number of entries. It is FIH’s intention to make these tournaments as local as possible, therefore keeping costs to all participating teams down to a minimum.

 

Teams winning through to Round 2 will join those ranked 9 – 16 in the FIH World Ranking and will play in tournaments on a more regional basis, which may involve teams from more than 1 continent.

 

At the end of Round 2, 8 teams will qualify for Round 3 and will join those teams ranked 1 – 8 in the FIH World Ranking, which have been granted a bye through to this round

 

Round 3 will be played in 2 tournaments, each comprising 8 teams. 

 

The number of teams winning through to the final round, Round 4, will depend on whether the hosts of Round 4 have qualified by performance to play in it.
 

Men’s teams ranked 1 – 8 as at 1 January 2011 and having a bye through to Round 3
Australia, Germany, Netherlands, England, Spain, Korea, New Zealand and Pakistan
 

Men’s teams ranked 9 – 16 as at 1 January 2011 and having a bye through to Round 2
India, Canada, Argentina, South Africa, Belgium, China, Malaysia and Japan
 

Women’s teams ranked 1 – 8 as at 1 January 2011 and having a bye through to Round 3
Argentina, Netherlands, Germany, China, England, Australia, New Zealand and Korea
 

Women’s teams ranked 9 – 16 as at 1 January 2011 and having a bye through to Round 2
Japan, Spain, India, South Africa, USA, Azerbaijan, Ireland and Chile

SINGAPORE AIM FOR 2020 OLYMPICS

Once the region's hockey kingpins, the Republic's men have not tasted gold medal success at the SEA Games since 1973.

The statistics are far worse at the global level, with Singapore's last appearance at the Olympics dating back to the 1956 Melbourne Games.

But local fans could be cheering on a Singapore team at the 2020 Olympics if the Singapore Hockey Federation's (SHF) proposed Sports Development Pathway programme takes off.

The national sports association revealed the initiative last week and plan to develop and nurture the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) under-17 boys' team to qualify for the 2020 Games.

Hockey veterans MediaCorp spoke to embraced the SHF initiative.

Said 82-year-old Ajit Singh, who was part of the 1956 Olympic team and was a YOG torchbearer last August: "I'm always for it and I think it's possible. I met the players during the Youth Olympics and saw them play - they played well and improved day-by-day, which is a good sign."

The SHF's 10-year programme aims to provide 10 to 15 players with training, local and international tournament experience to allow them to mature into recognised international players and improve the nation's world ranking.

Two youngsters, Muhammad Haseef Salim (striker) and YOG captain Nur Ashriq Ferdaus, have expressed interest in training and study stints in Perth, Australia and the SHF have submitted a $50,000 subsidy request to the Singapore Olympic Foundation to fund the players' ambitions.

The association have also requested a further $350,000 from 2012 to 2018 to fund other athletes who are keen to study and train in Australia.

Part of the pathway for the national team in the lead-up to 2020 includes major tournaments from this year till 2019, such as the Under-18 Asia Cup, Junior Asian Hockey Federation Cup, Under-21 Junior World Cup, World Cup qualification events, SEA Games, Commonwealth and Asian Games.

Former international goalkeeper Anwarul Haque, who competed under the Malaysian flag at the 1964 Olympic Games (Singapore was part of Malaysia from 1963 to 1965), believes the conditions are ideal for Singapore to make their Olympic bid.

"I really want to see it happen - there's no issue with management, the infrastructure is there, the key to success is getting young players who can deliver," said the 71-year-old former hockey chief.

"In 1967, we beat the Malaysian team at a pre-Olympic tournament in Pakistan and it was sheer ecstasy, such great joy because the rivalry between both countries was phenomenal. We must first compete in and win tournaments like the Razak Cup, which will give us an opportunity to measure our standards against Malaysian state teams.

"I would like to see us beating Malaysia for a start, and if it's possible, for Singapore to take part in Malaysia's professional hockey league."

While response to the SHF's initiatives has been largely positive, former defender Farouk Marican sounded a note of caution yesterday.

Said the 65-year-old: "It is good, but how you go about it is the main concern. There must be commitment from both the players and officials.

"But first, we must have a good programme for youth development - starting from eight to nine-year olds.

"Australia is a very good example and they have developmental squads for under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18. We need to identify talent…and in time we will have an assembly line churning out players but we don't seem to have that."

POSITION VACANT

There is soon going to be a vacancy in the 1 MAS development program as Saiful Azli is said to have quit as the Development Officer.

Now i used the word quit because that was what was told to me almost three weeks ago when the MHL matches were held in Penang.

But it is now being said that Saiful was asked to leave, and that too not be the Task Force.

Well whatever the decision is, the departure of Saiful will not leave a gap as an ex-international has already been earmarked to take over.

Besides Saiful is bound to continue his good work in Uitm and we wish him the best.

And a point of clarification , we never implied that Saiful used MHF vehicles as it was stated MHF staff not 1 MAS

TOUGH OPENERS

An opening match against one of the most improved teams in the world followed by a match against the reigning world champions.

That is what the Malaysian team will face in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup that will be held from the 5-15 May at the Azlan Shah Stadium.

In the fixtures released by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation, the seven teams that have confirmed participation are Australia, Great Britain, India, Pakistan, South Korea, New Zealand and hosts Malaysia.

Going by rankings, Malaysia is the lowest ranked team and thus will find it difficult to repeat the performance of 2009 where they emerged runners-up to India and last year where they were in the running for place in the final until the final round of matches in the league stage.

Malaysia will play Great Britain on the first day and that will be followed by a match against Australia.

And after two days of rest, Malaysia will take on India, who are the joint defending champions with South Korea.

Another rest day and Malaysia will face New Zealand and Korea. Following another break Malaysia will finish of their match against Pakistan, in a repeat of the Asian Games final.

"It will be a tough tournament and we will have one month to prepare the team as the MHL ends in the middle of March", said national coach Stephen van Huizen.

"From the looks of things we need to play some competitive matches in April to better prepare. But that will be subject to MHF being able to secure teams to play against.

" Maybe there will be teams that would want to come early and play some matches."

FIXTURES: 

May 5 

1605 New Zealand v Pakistan

1805 Korea v India

2005 Great Britain v Malaysia.
 

May 6

1605 Korea v Pakistan

1805 Great Britain v India

2005 Australia v Malaysia

May 8

1605 Australia v India

1805 Great Britain v Pakistan

2005 Korea v New Zealand

May 9

1605 Australia v Pakistan

1805 Great Britain v New Zealand

2005 India v Malaysia.
 

May 11

1605 New Zealand v Malaysia

1805 Australia v Korea

2005 Pakistan v India

May 12

1605 Australia v Great Britain

1805 New Zealand v India

2005 Korea v Malaysia

May 14

1605 Great Britain v Korea

1805 Pakistan v Malaysia

2005 Australia v New Zealand

May 15

1535 Fifth-Sixth

1805 Third-Fourth

2035 Final.

CNY BLUES FOR BENG HAI

For all the talk of Malaysian Hockey Federation is being run better then the previous regime is now proven to be mere talk.

For this blog can reveal that national coaches Stephen van Huizen and Tai Beng Hai have yet to be paid their January salaries.

And it seems that MHF are awaiting the formalities from the National Sports Council to endorse the two as coaches for this year before the NSC can go around paying them.

In other words, MHF only endorsed the decision to extend the services of the duo after their Management and Council Meetings at the end of January. And that decision will have to be ratified at the Joint Committee meeting between NSC and MHF before the duo can be paid their salaries.

So who is it to blame and who will accept accountability in this matter?

The MHF Coaching Chairman, the person responsible for the recommendation of coaches to the Council must share the blame together with the National Team Management Committee Chairman as he sat on things as well.

The duo were appointed as Chairman of their respective Committees on October 31 but only held their sub committee meetings in January 2011.

Just look at BAM, they held their meeting in early December and got NSC to endorse the decision the same month so the coaches got paid.

Now before some claim that the MHF Secretariat should be absolved of any blame , it is the nerve centre and the President can only be effective if fed with the precise information and not selective info as been done now.

Why on earth did MHF not pay the coaches first as Beng Hai celebrates Chinese New Year?

Perhaps we can draw the conclusion from the fact that Beng Hai has not been reimbursed for the Razak Cup trip last year as MHF have not got the claims from NSC.

I expect the two coaches to be targetted for the revelation by this blog, but the truth has to be told.

And I find it difficult to believe that MHF does not have enough money to pay them first.

Or is it a case of NSC cannot be trusted ?

Over to you Dato Zolkples Embong as you say MHF has the best administration so it must be NSC that sucks...