Lausanne, Switzerland: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is working towards unifying North and South Korea through sport, and initiative started by Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee. The FIH has put together a plan with the purpose of getting the participation of a combined Korea team for future FIH events, in particular for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and its qualification process.
A precursor to the peace-making initiative, a meeting was held on the occasion of FIH Congress in New Delhi in November last year. The participants of the meeting were FIH President Dr. Narinder Dhruv Batra, FIH Executive Board Member Tayyab Ikram, FIH CEO Thierry Weil as well as delegates from the Hockey Associations of Republic of Korea and Korea DPR. The meeting resulted in a number of promising proposals such as unified training camps or exchange programmes. Both Hockey Associations promised to bring up the proposals with their respective governments and National Olympic Committees.
Additionally, last week in Lausanne a successful meeting was held between Tayyab Ikram and relevant stakeholders, where future plans for playing together as one team were discussed.
The FIH is committed to promoting peace between the two countries through the use of sport and will continue to work towards this cause in the foreseeable future.