FIH President Ikram set to further sustainability measures in first full term

Ikram emerged victorious in a two-horse race for the leadership role against Belgian Marc Coudron, after Narinder Batra stepped down.

Batra was subject to a probe from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation which accused him of misappropriating funds.

Subsequently, he resigned as Indian Olympic Association President, FIH President, and gave up his status as an IOC member.

Prior to, and during his campaigning, Ikram advocated the need for sustainability to be taken more seriously by the FIH. During the body’s 2022 congress, it launched the Sustainability Strategy for Hockey which Ikram described, as a “long time due”.

Ikram, who has previously coached Pakistan and China, completed the remainder of Batra’s term and has been well received by the hockey world.

He is now the sole candidate for the presidency at the upcoming FIH congress due to take place on Saturday (November 9^th) in Oman’s capital city of Muscat.

This year marks the international federation’s 100^th anniversary, and Ikram is determined to ensure it can celebrate many more milestones by making sustainability a priority.

“We certainly need to continue driving sustainability in the future and we have to carry out a self-assessment after signing with the United Nations Climate for Action Framework,” Ikram tells Global Sustainable Sport.

“We are now obliged to have a self-assessment on a regular basis which is a challenge.

“Today, with bigger congresses and conferences on climate change, people are flying thousands of miles to attend the congress so that in itself is a challenge also.

“We have a challenge in order to grow, in order to get more nations playing international events, we have to organise more events which means more flying so that is something which we need to figure out how best to navigate in a sustainable way.

“That will be our focus in the upcoming two years – how we can mitigate and offset those carbon emissions for which we are responsible.”

One way it is currently making progress on offsetting these emissions is with its Give Back to Forest initiative.

The scheme was one of Ikram’s first acts as president and it has now taken another step by launching phase two of the project, this time in China.

Through the plan, the FIH is aiming to plant one million trees in countries around the world.

It began with phase one which saw the planting of more 100,000 trees in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The FIH has made strides in the past couple of years when it comes to environmentalism and has provided itself a good platform to build on.

It recently won the 2024 IOC Climate Action Award in the international federation category. Its work in substantially reducing water consumption for elite-level hockey was the driving force behind the success.

According to surface manufacturer Greenfields, an average of 6,000 litres of water is used to irrigate a pitch during one hockey match which is enough drinking water for a three-person household for six-and-a-half years.

Ikram states that the consumption of water between the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was reduced by 40%. It is thought that savings from Paris 2024 were even higher, although no official figures have been made available yet.

The FIH is aiming to implement waterless pitches at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, and are already planned for use at the 2026 Hockey World Cups in Belgium and the Netherlands.

“We are focused on our main stakeholders and because there are many organisations in the market so now with this aim of reducing water usage on our pitches, it is a target that we are giving to them,” Ikram says.

“Ultimately, we expect it to lower the quantities of water being used not just from one or two main suppliers but the others as well if they need to stay in the market.

“So, I think that will keep them very motivated for this.

“Dry turf is a destination. I don’t think we will see it for the next couple of years, but we can always chase this goal and try to reduce water usage.”

One initiative that is fairly new in the pipeline is self-wetting balls.

These balls release water at the point of contact between the ball, the surface, and the stick with the aim of enabling hockey to be played at the highest level on dry turf.

They were tested at the men’s Hockey 5s World Cup which is a short format version of the sport and took place in Oman earlier this year.

It is said that they have potential for use at higher levels but it is still early days, and currently manufacturing costs are presenting the biggest hurdle due to it being a new technology.

“We are still in the experimental phase,” Ikram says.

“Up until now it has been positive because we have been able to use less water while maintaining similar playability so that would be a great achievement.

“It is showing promising signs but I still think we need to work on it.

Ikram is unfazed by changes that a different type of ball could have on the sport and the way it plays.

“The beauty of hockey is that it has adapted over the years,” he says.

“We played on grass pitches years ago, not the artificial ones seen today, but our players adapted so quickly so I don’t see a challenge in the way the ball will change gameplay.

“The main thing we need to see is the friction of a water-producing ball and if that works, so we are still in a developmental phase.”

The next four years will be pivotal for hockey’s long-term future but with Ikram due to be at the wheel, the FIH stands in good stead to steer the sport through environmental challenges that it will face.

Image: Pablo Arenas on Unsplash, Jeffrey F Lin on Unsplash