Dubai Sports City denies plans for hockey qualifiers

Dubai: A senior official has denied reports that Dubai Sports City is bidding to host the men's World Cup Hockey qualifying tournament at its soon-to-be-built 5,000-seat stadium in 2010.

Macky Dudhia, the General Manager - Sports Business Operations at Dubai Sports City said that while the new $3 billion development is indeed hoping to hold several major international hockey tournaments once it opens its doors in September next year, the World Cup qualifier was not on its radar at this point.

"Those are just rumours. It's not something we are dealing with at the moment," said Dudhia.

"Progress has been a bit slow in confirming exactly which tournaments we will be hosting, with so many people away at the moment, but we hope that very soon we will be able to arrive at an agreement," he added.

Earlier reports suggested that Dubai would play host to one of the qualifying tournaments which will determine which countries will compete at the 2010 men's World Cup in India.

According to reliable sources, a European nation expressed interest in hosting the tournament but was informed that the competition would most likely take place in Dubai.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has said the hosts for the qualifying tournaments will only be finalised next year, however.

"At this moment, no organiser for one of the six World Cup qualifiers (three men and three women) is confirmed. This will happen hopefully early in 2008," said FIH Communications Manager Arjen Meijer.

Meanwhile, had the City's new stadium been completed already, Dubai could also have been an option as a host for the Champions Trophy, should the FIH decide to move the tournament (due to be played from December 1-9) from Pakistan because of security fears.

Australia have already pulled out of the tournament on advice from their government but the FIH announced recently they would wait until closer to the time to make any decisions regarding the current venue.

Both Malaysia and India have expressed interest in stepping in as hosts for the tournament which brings together the top six teams in the world.