In a scathing attack on Indian coach Joaquim Carvalho and his support staff for criticising umpires at the Olympic qualifiers in Chile, the International Hockey Federation today warned that their “utterances are under review” and may invite “sanctions.” Irked by the Indian Hockey Federation’s poor handling of the affairs and their criticism of umpires and the FIH for the men’s team’s failure to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, the world governing body said non-adherence to the code of conduct might land “persons concerned” in trouble. After the Santiago debacle, IHF president KPS Gill, Carvalho and other support staff started a blame game, holding FIH and poor umpiring responsible for the Indian team’s defeat. Carvalho had even blamed the tournament director for visiting the team hotel in the middle of the night to reprimand player Gurbaz Singh.

FIH official Bob Davidzon, also the project director of ‘Promoting Indian Hockey,’ ridiculed the Indian coach suggesting that he should know the rules of the event and try to be disciplined. “It is in the power of the manager to agree with the tournament director on a time and venue to have the compulsory ‘reading out’ of sentences to the players involved in an incident and that does not have to take place ‘in the middle of the night.’” Davidzon said.

Punishment likely

He said Carvalho and his support staff might be punished for lashing out at tournament officials and violating the FIH code of conduct.

“The Code of Conduct is very clear that all participants in a tournament...must not involve a personal attack on another player, umpire, appointed official or administrator. Non-adherence can lead to sanctions by the FIH for the persons concerned and the utterances by the coaching staff of India upon its return are at the moment under review and sanctions may apply,” he warned.

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