Lessons our hockey chiefs should learn

Bizsport

The reason for jubilation was essentially because hockey followers feel the Indian and Pakistani teams must succeed, to boost global interest in the sport.

Even as it hoped for such a revival from the Asian giants, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) was busy planning a new image and looking for ways to promote the sport like never before. Through the week, the buzz was all about FIH's activities vis-à-vis the future of the game.

The FIH hired brand identity specialists KejaDonia, which developed a new brand and logo for the world body.

KejaDonia has in the past undertaken brand identity projects for global companies like Nestle and Heineken.

The brand "WorldHockey" is a bright logo with a red background, where the words 'World' (in white) and 'Hockey' (in blue) are joined by a hockey stick.

FIH President Els van Breda Vriesman has, as a member of the influential International Olympic Committee, done a wonderful job of ensuring better positioning for her sport and raising its profile.

In her meeting with the media in Amstelveen, she said, "In today's highly competitive, visually orientated sporting market, hockey needs a brand that reflects its dynamic, vibrant, global characteristics in order to appeal to our target audiences of the world's media and youth. The "WorldHockey" brand is a wonderful opportunity to create a new asset for the promotion of our sport."

The FIH also revealed its various other plans, new sponsors and global partners for the sport. FIH's first global partner BDO International, an accounting company, was formally appointed to assist with the revision and implementation of FIH's strategic plan.

The FIH also appointed Trefpunt as a public relations agency to service the three global hockey partners.

Trefpunt will also implement a transfer-of-knowledge programme to assist host organisers with the marketing aspects of the organisation of future World Hockey events.

The other global partners are Rabobank, which sponsored this Champions Trophy, and Samsung. They will soon be joined by a fourth partner "" not yet announced "" for the four-year FIH programme, which began in early 2003.

The title rights and branding opportunities at all major FIH tournaments will be shared between these partners, up to and including the Mens and Womens World Cups in 2006.

The FIH has also been engaged in a regular programme for coaches by getting the world's best coaches for seminars.

The seminar in Amstelveen was attended by 24 participants from 17 countries and conducted by FIH's top coaches Tayyab Ikram, Roelant Oltmans and Horst Wein. Also present with their views were coaches like Rick Charlesworth and Kim Sang Ryul.

Staying abreast with the latest developments is the key to development, promotion and projection of hockey, and that's what these seminars are doing.

Fortunately, there were a couple of Indian coaches, Jagbir Singh and P A Raphael, who attended these sessions, but both were there in individual capacities.

Considering Rabobank has a fairly prominent presence in India through its Indian arm, Rabo India, and Samsung is already a sponsor of the Indian Olympic Association, Indian hockey should actually try to leverage the current level of interest to find for itself a series of high-profile sponsors.

Alas, the IHF has no public relations company to assist, no strategy to give it direction. Even a client like Sahara needs to be given value for money.

If it is not, it might not be inclined to continue with 'charitable' feelings towards what we consider our national sport.

Still, it is never too late. The recent Champions Trophy raised an amazing amount of interest among hockey fans.

For India and Pakistan matches, at least 30 to 40 per cent of the paying public was of Indian origin, and more than 30 Indian media persons turned up to cover the event "" including five TV channels. Surely this is something that the IHF can build on.