Major international hockey event coming to Dubai

Dubai: An announcement is expected within the next two months regarding a major international hockey event which will take place in Dubai next year.

That's according to Macky Dudhia, General Manager - Sports Business Operations at Dubai Sports City.

Speaking to Gulf News, Dudhia revealed: "We are working with the FIH (International Hockey Federation). I can't say anything now but what I can say is that they will be world class events. We want to open the stadium with a big event and bring the best teams in the world here by September/October next year."

Interest expressed

"We are working on a couple of events coming here and the discussions are well progressed. I am positive about that. Negotiations and discussions are taking place right now, and within two months everything should be tidied up. There are two, maybe three events that are of interest and each one is different but it involves the top playing hockey countries."

Dudhia said that progress on the World Hockey Academy in Dubai Sports City was on track and plenty of interest has already been expressed by national federations across the world.

"Several countries have indicated they'd like to make use of the facilities. We've had a couple of visits, one from the high performance manager of a southern hemisphere country. He went through the designs and was very excited about the prospect of using this as a landing pad and having training camps here before attending any tournaments, whether they are on the subcontinent or Europe," he said.

Local game

Dudhia also stressed that apart from the global impact that the academy is expected to have, the focus will also be on developing the local game.

"We want to have a positive impact on local hockey. I think we can and we will be. The policy here is whatever we are doing we want to be involved in the local community; there are no two ways about it.

"That is the key. We don't want facilities that are under-utilised. We want participation - that's part of the whole concept of Dubai Sports City."