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International Hockey Federation

Will they or won?t they? The question of Greece taking part in their Games has caused considerable controversy.
Mark Grant takes an in depth look at the situation.

In internet chat rooms around the world one of the main topics of conversation has been the possible qualifiers for the forthcoming Olympics and, more specifically, the role to be played by the host nation Greece.

Now it really depends on which side of the fence you wish to lay your hockey stick on this one but from one half there have been howls of derision that the Greeks have been treated abysmally yet the other can see no problem with the situation.

The 'situation' is the fact that, for the first time in Olympic hockey history, the hosts are required to pre-qualify by meeting standards on the field rather than receiving the green light to participate merely because they are holding the event. That is because the nation has no lineage in the sport and offering them a place at the expense of a more established country risks greater embarrassment in the tournament proper.

However, for Greece there is not the torturous route of the Olympic qualifying competition, as most other countries have to face. All their teams have to do is beat the lowest-ranked opposition in the said qualifiers in a three-leg play-off. Success would guarantee them a place at Athens 2004 in August.

It is a fallacy that the hosts automatically qualify to play in their own Games. The only nations who were gifted a place were the defending gold medallists but, from these Olympics onwards, even that right has been taken away now and so every country has to pass some kind of test.

The only nations so far guaranteed a place at Athens in August are the most recent winners of their respective continental championships. Therefore, on the men's side there is Germany (European Nations Cup), Korea (Asian Games), Argentina (Pan-American Games), Australia (Oceania Cup) and Egypt (All Africa Games); on the women's the countries are Netherlands (European Nations Cup), China (Asian Games), Argentina (Pan-American Games), Australia (Oceania Cup) and South Africa (All Africa Games).

Dennis Meredith, International Hockey Federation events manager, explained; " The qualification process, based upon the rankings from the previous World Cup and World Cup Qualifier rankings, has not changed since it was first introduced when the first Olympic qualifiers were played in 1991."

" The Olympic Games was awarded to Athens in 1997. In this particular case hockey in Greece was not developed and there was very limited activity of the Greek national teams over a 5 year period. Because of this in 2001 the FIH, in consultation with the IOC, put a certain qualifying standard on the Greek teams and that was a two-stage process. If they had qualified for the last 12 of the European Nations Cup in 2003 they would have automatically qualified [for the Olympics]. Otherwise they had to play the lowest-ranked team that participated at the Olympic qualifiers.



"The situation has not arisen before because fortunately previous hosts at least had played in the qualifiers or final tournaments of their continental championships.

"There has been criticism of the USA [playing in Olympics in 1984 and 1996] but they qualified for the Pan-American Games (4th in 1983 and 3rd in 1995), whereas Greece did not qualify for the European Nations Cup.

"The IOC Charter does not provide the host country with the automatic right to participate. The qualifying criteria is established by the FIH and submitted to the IOC for approval.

With this in mind, Greece?s men - ranked 50th in the world list of 69 nations, behind teams such as Venezuela, Gibraltar and Namibia - will play Canada in a best-of-three series from 18-21 February in Madrid, Spain just before the Olympic qualifier also in Madrid from March 2 to 13.

The women, 47th out of 55 countries, behind teams such as Hong Kong, Czech Republic and Puerto Rico, are scheduled to take on Russia from 11-14 March in Auckland, New Zealand immediately before the women's Olympic qualifier

A victory for Greece would reduce the number of qualifiers from the men's and women's events from seven to six and five to four respectively as there are only a total of 12 Olympic Games places for the men and 10 for the women.

The teams competing in the Olympic qualifiers have been decided by their rankings after the last World Cups and World Cup Qualifiers.

For the men, defending Olympic champions Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, Japan, South Africa and Poland have been drawn in Pool A with Pakistan, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Belgium and Canada in Pool B. Canada benefited from Cuba's late withdrawal.

In the women's event, Great Britain, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland and Ukraine are in Pool A, with Korea, Spain, USA, Japan and Russia in Pool B.

In terms of the venue in Athens, some of the facilities at the new Helliniko Hockey Centre were successfully put to the test at the four-nation Athens International tournament, an Olympic test event, which was won by Spain (men) and South Africa (women). Greece?s women, interestingly, did not take part whereas its men finished last after conceding 25 goals in four matches and scoring none.

"It was a bit like one big building site but the pitch is impressive and the Greeks are trying very hard," said Great Britain coach Tricia Heberle.

"There is not a lot of infrastructure or landscaping done but there is a lot of construction taking place and I'm sure it will all be ready in time."


The question remains; will the host nation be there to enjoy it?

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