THE Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is on slippery turf when its executive council meet on Monday here in the Capital to decide on the course of action against the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF).The Olympic body has the constitutional authority of suspending the federation and and appointing an ad-hoc body to oversee the functioning of the national game. But will it dare to go the whole hog, or will it choose to steer clear of controversy in what is an Olympic year? It’s yet to be seen how the tricky subject is to be resolved. The IOA’s consitution clearly authorises it to take disciplinary action against any federation for misbehaviour or any other undesirable activity bringing discredit to the country and the sport. After IHF secretary K Jothikumaran was alleged to be involved in a cash scandal to include players in the national team, the IOA held an emergency meeting and released a statement saying it strongly condemned the episode. But this issue of the IHF secretary has only added fuel to the fire that had started after the men’s national team failed to make it to the Beijing Olympics — the first time in 80 years. The noise that started calling for IHF president KPS Gill to step down after that debacle in Santiago reached a crescendo with the latest scandal.But the repeated calls for Gill’s ouster that have followed the gradual spiralling down of the sport, have only left him unperturbed. This time too, he has refused to step down. In case the IHF is suspended, what would be the be the repurcussions? First, the world governing body will have to recognise IOA as the ad-hoc body to look into the day-to-day functiong of the game in the country. Even Gill will have to abide by the IOA executive council’s decisions then. Way back in the 1970s, when the IHF was under an administrative crisis, the IOA was given the power to oversee the affairs of the national federation. A national team was formed and under the leadership of Ajitpal Singh, India won the World Cup in 1975. The ball is in IOA’s court.
