Lausanne, 11 March 2011
By email to the General Secretaries of all National Associations
Please find enclosed the FIH’s new Regulations on Sanctioned and Unsanctioned Events, which were approved by the FIH Executive Board at its meeting on 4-6 March 2011 and come into effect immediately. I have spoken to many of you about these regulations already, but not all, and so I set out below some basic information about the new regulations and what the FIH’s member national associations are now required to do in order to implement them.
Background to the new FIH Regulations
In line with the FIH Strategic Plan and the focus on event management, the FIH Executive Board believes that it is very important to confirm and clarify, as part of the sport’s core regulations, the right of the FIH, the Continental Federations, and you the National Associations to control the playing calendar of the sport.
This is not to put off outside interest and investment; far from it. Rather, it is to ensure that (1) as custodians of the sport, we are able between us to ensure that events that are developed in our territories and/or involving our clubs and/or athletes are structured and organised in a manner that protects the integrity and long-term interests of the sport as a whole; and (2) you as National Associations are also able to ensure that your athletes continue to give precedence to participation in your national representative teams over participation in other events.
To that end, you will see that the new FIH Regulations:
- require an event organiser to obtain the sanction of the National Association (for a purely domestic event) and/or the Continental Federation and/or the FIH (for events with a cross-border and/or international element) before that event can be included in the official competition calendar;
- require National Associations and organisations, athletes and other individuals under the jurisdiction of National Associations only to participate in sanctioned events; and
- require an Athlete to obtain a No-Objection Certificate from his or her home National Association (i.e., the National Association that he/she is qualified to represent in international competition) before participating in an event organised or sanctioned by another National Association.
What must you do now?
Each National Association must now adopt regulations implementing these requirements within its own territory, and establishing procedures whereby (i) event organisers can apply for your sanction for purely domestic events held in your territory; and (ii) your athletes can apply for your permission to participate in other national associations’ sanctioned events. This must be done on or before 31 March 2011.
To assist you to meet this deadline, the FIH has had a template set of regulations prepared, a copy of which is enclosed. You will need to review the template carefully, and make any revisions or additions required to reflect your particular domestic set-up, before you adopt the template regulations. You may also need to review your disciplinary regulations to ensure that they give you the ability to enforce the new regulations effectively. However, we hope the template will provide a useful starting-point.
Advance approvals
You will see that the new FIH Regulations give guidance to National Association as to the factors they must take into account in deciding whether to sanction domestic events and/or to issue No-Objection Certificates, and that guidance is reflected in the template domestic regulations.
In addition, you will see that the regulations expressly permit and encourage you (i) to sanction particular events or categories of event in advance; and (ii) to issue No-Objection Certificates in advance for specified events or categories of event. This power has been included in the regulations to help minimise the administrative burden involved in applying the new regulations moving forward.
New regulations only to be applied prospectively, not retrospectively
Please note that the new regulations are only to be applied prospectively; they are not to be given retrospective effect. Therefore they do not apply to events staged prior to 31 March 2011 or to commitments made prior to 31 March 2011 to participate in events staged after 31 March 2011. Instead, they are to apply to all participation commitments made after 31 March 2011.
Please ensure you implement these regulations promptly within your territory and publicise them as necessary to ensure you are able to enforce them as required from 31 March 2011 on. A failure to do so will amount to a breach of FIH Regulations that could result in disciplinary action being taken against you under the FIH Statutes.
Seeking FIH sanction for events
Any person seeking to organise an event for which FIH sanction is required under the new regulations should be given a copy of the attached information sheet, ‘Applying for FIH sanction for an event’, which gives guidance on how such an application should be made.
It should be noted, however, that the FIH has exercised its powers under the FIH Regulations to grant advance sanction for all of the events listed in the official FIH calendar as of 1 March 2011.
Further information
If you have any questions about the new regulations, or what you are now required to do to implement them, please contact me or FIH’s Competitions Manager, Martyn Gallivan.
Kelly Fairweather
Chief Executive Officer
Enclosures:
- New FIH Regulations on Sanctioned and Unsanctioned Events
- Information Sheet: Applying for FIH sanction for an event
- Template National Association Regulations implementing the requirements of the FIH Regulations on Sanctioned and Unsanctioned Events
- Application for a No Objection Certificate Information Sheet
- Template National Association No Objection Certificate
