Sanction Fee a burden

The objectives of the national body is to promote and develop the sport.

However it seems that the promotion of the game comes at a cost.

For the Organisers of the annual Sultan Johor Cup and Sultan Azlan Shah Cup will now have to fork out "sanction fees".

An unheard of condition since Hockey was first played in the country.

And the sanction fee payable is not a few ringgit but rather USD5,000 for the SOJC and USD10,000 for the SASC,

That works out to be RM21,000 and RM42,000 respectively.

The decision will not surprising but the quantum came as a shock to the Johor Hockey Association.

" Are you sure you got the figure right?, asked Johor HA Deputy President Manjit Majid Abdullah.

" I was under the impression it was to be RM5,000 for the SOJC.

" I will leave it to the JHA and Organising Committee of SOJC to discuss the quantum."

For the record the sanction of international events comes under the jurisdiction of the International Hockey Federation and the national body is responsible to facilitate the application for the sanction.

It will now be interesting to see if state Hockey associations take cue from this decision and impose sanction fee in their affiliates.

And with Negri Sembilan HA contemplating hosting an annual ladies tournament, they might reconsider due to the quantum of sanction fee imposed.