New Delhi, February 29: Rattled by the stinging criticism by former CEO Elena Norman and former Women's team's coach Janneke Schopman, Hockey India on Wednesday denied all the charges saying it stands united and there are no fissures among the top officials.
Long-time serving CEO Elena alleged that for she was not being paid her dues and top officials are totally indifferent towards her and that is effecting the functioning of Hockey India.
Schopman had alleged that women players are not getting the attention and respect which they deserve and she is being ignored and overlooked and it was becoming difficult for her to function as a coach.
Reacting to these allegations Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey and Secretary General Bhola Nath Singh issued a joint statement refuting these charges.
"Hockey India is an autonomous and professional body dedicated to the development of Indian Hockey. Our primary objective as an organisation has been and continues to remain the welfare and progress of the sport of Hockey and our athletes" they said in a statement.
The statement further added: In this spirit, our entire focus remains on growing our talent, ensuring all hosted events are conducted with the utmost professionalism and our national teams are receiving the best support to support their performance on the global stage.
We will continue in this pursuit of excellence and rebuild the Women’s team with a fresh approach to providing the right infrastructure and training to enhance their performance. In addition to this, we are cognisant of this being an Olympic year and are dedicated to aide the National Men’s Team with the required support to stand on the podium yet again in the forthcoming Olympic Games in Paris this year.
Recently there have been statements by outgoing officials published in the media, claiming that there are divisions within the organization. This is not correct. We remain united in working together, and as always in the best interest of the sport.
The Federation has treated the teams and all players equally with equal benefits and training facilities, including cash awards and monetary recognition that is at par and is purely based on performance. We have built our ethos around equity and equal opportunities right from the grassroots levels across states as well as on a national level.
Concluding the statement, the top brass of the Hockey India sought public support saying "We now seek the ongoing support of ardent hockey fans to continue to back what is important - the teams and the players like they have always done in this important year. And we look forward to keeping our entire focus on the task at hand".