The men's World Cup 2002 has been rescheduled to avoid a clash with the Malaysian Grand Prix. It will now be played one week earlier - from 25 February to 9 March 2002.

The date has been moved, after consultations with the FIH marketing agents, to enhance the chances of TV coverage.

Austria and Germany have shown serious interest in hosting the inaugural Indoor World Cup in 2003. Bid documents from these two nations will be analysed in July - in time for the Executive Board meeting to take a decision. Both nations have a wonderful tradition of indoor hockey and excellent facilities.

The Indoor Working Group, under the leadership of Ingeborg Gruner, is supervising FIH planning for the event.

A qualifying procedure is to be recommended to the Executive Board.

Since the Paris Congress, this committee has been involved mainly in the day-to-day supervision of competitions and their preparation.

All the competing teams are now finalised for this year’s major FIH competitions, following the recent completion of the Americas Cup (Women) and Junior Africa Cup (Men).

The arrangements and fixtures for both Junior World Cups and World Cup Qualifiers are complete and have been released.

Evaluation Committees are being established to analyse the merits of the 4 x 4 pool system being used for World level events this year. The first analysis will be at the Women's Junior World Cup in Buenos Aires, the second in the Men's World Cup Qualifier in Edinburgh.

Many comments have been received in respect of the advantages of the alternative 2 pools of 8 teams.

Representations are being made to the IOC to include 12 Women's teams at the Athens Olympics.

The FIH is providing advice to ATHOC, the Organising Committee for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, to ensure that it is another top class Olympic hockey event. Ron Riley, the Hockey Events Manager at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, has recently made a three week advisory visit to Athens.

A great deal of pressure is being put on the Hellenic Hockey Association to accelerate their preparations for the teams. There are concerns about the competitiveness, particularly of their women’s squad. There is even speculation that the women’s team may be withdrawn.

The FIH has conducted inspection visits to all the prospective Olympic hosts for the 2008 Olympic Games.

The FIH's new President, Els van Breda Vriesman, was on the IOC's Evaluation Committee which also inspected venues.

Only one of the bidding cities is not, at this stage, able to boast a tradition of hockey and existing facilities and that is Istanbul.

Hockey pundits believe that Beijing, Osaka, Paris and Toronto are all capable of perpetuating the desired hockey atmosphere, given their hockey traditions and facilities.

Inspections of venues and meetings with Organising Committees have been undertaken in Buenos Aires (Junior Womens World Cup); Amiens/Abberville (Women’s World Cup Qualifier); and Hobart (Junior World Cup) and proposed 2008 "Olympic" venues.

Appointment of umpires and technical officials has been completed for the above mentioned tournaments and the Women's Champions Trophy. Appointments will soon be concluded for the Men's Champions Trophy.

The inaugural Champions Challenges in New Delhi, India, will provide an interesting insight into the competitiveness of the teams ranked below seventh. For India, the hosting of the Afro-Asian Games a month earlier, in the same city, will mean a busy two months of hockey but in a renovated stadium.

It is virtually certain that the FIH will adopt new proposals in terms of evaluation procedures for the next cycle of competitions.

This committee is reviewing the qualification system for all major competitions, the cycle and frequency of competitions, the responsibility chart, bidding requirements and procedures.

Regrettably Ukraine had to withdraw from the Women's Junior World Cup in Buenos Aires. Barbados, as next reserve, was asked to replace them.

Bev Johnson (USA) unfortunately had to withdraw as TD for health reasons. She was replaced by Robyn Pascoe (Australia), who has a very sound team of technical officials to back her.

The World Under 18 Festival will be hosted by Poland in August 2002 in the nearby towns of Poznan (boys) and Gniezno (girls).

A successful boys under 18 festival was held some years ago at Rawalpindi. The FIH Global Competitions Committee, Executive Board and former Council believed that, whilst a formal Under 18 World Cup was not appropriate given educational and other demands on young players, a Festival for boys and girls would be good for the development of the game. With this being Hockey’s Year of the Youth, a festival next year will create added momentum to the FIH’s efforts.

The FIH hopes such festivals will be held at least every four years but, if enthusiasm is generated, could stage them every two years.

A CD of the Tournament Director’s Seminar, held in Paris last November, has been produced. The training of officials will be intensified under the jurisdiction of the Continental Federations in an effort to increase the pool of world class technical officials.

The FIH are to review the composition of the new-named Events and Competitions Committee whilst the committee's brief has also been extended to include the concept of Events in its broadest context. The aim is to make FIH competitions vibrant and exciting for spectators, players, television, technical officials, sponsors and business partners.

The committee is constantly reviewing competition formats and analysing new ideas to make the game a very competitive global sport.

The appointment of Dennis Meredith as the new Events Manager is reported elsewhere

Other work in hand

Among the tasks being undertaken or worked upon are: the Technical Manual has been updated; Survey on extra-time and penalty shoot-out preferences; Review of bidding procedures; Calendar congestion and possible improvements; Survey of concerns of national associations regarding competitions; Qualification system for FIH major events.