FIH, today, became the first International Federation to agree to the Dubai Sports Council’s offer of setting up their regional offices at Dubai Design District. The offer was given to Summer Olympic International Federation which has got in FIH, its first taker.
The two sides signed a MoU at the SportAccord Convention 2016 in Laussane, Switzerland to confirm the deal.
Talking about the deal and announcement, His Excellency Saeed Hareb, Secretary General of the Dubai Sports Council, said: “For Dubai, hospitality is central to everything we do and that makes us the perfect host for any International Federation or governing body looking to set up regional offices and stage annual conferences and meetings.”
Further, he added,”As such, we are delighted to welcome FIH into Dubai’s wider sporting family and look forward to hosting their representatives in our new headquarters as we work together to promote sport both in the region and across the globe.”
With this deal, FIH joins a list of international sporting bodies like the International Cricket Council (ICC), Golf’s European Tour and La Liga of Spain which have been already benefited from their presence at Dubai. The Federation of International Hockey, incidentally, is also the winner of 2015 version of “International Creative Organization Award” from Mohammed Bin Rashid Al- Maktoum Creative Sports Awards.
Speaking about their decision, the FIH President, Leandro Negre, said, “Dubai’s world-class sporting facilities, events infrastructure and global connectivity all contribute to the city’s growing reputation as a home for international sport.”
“For the FIH, deciding to place representatives in Dubai, sitting at the crossroads of the world and at the centre of hockey’s key markets, makes perfect sense and we are grateful to Dubai Sports Council for its kind offer and continued support of the Federation,” he further added.
Dubai Sports Council will move their headquarters to its new premises in May and thereafter office space allocation will start with FIH being the first space taker. Currently, the deal is for a period of two years.
This is one of the latest steps taken in line with the FIH’s 10-year Hockey Revolution strategy 2014-2014 designed to unite the hockey fraternity to reach their ambition of a global game that inspires the next generation.
This includes developing innovative and exciting entertainment events, increasing the degree of professionalism, building a recognized, powerful image and including millions more followers around the world for which they have initiated several steps like Fan-focused entertainment portfolio, world class TV production & distribution, joined-up global marketing, vision based commercial partners and high performing sport.