Funding debate gathers urgency

Hockey Round-up: Frustrating as it was for all concerned, the decision last Thursday to call off the weekend's men's and women's senior interprovincial tournament in Belfast, because of the weather, received added "justification" on Saturday when the women's Irish Junior cup semi-final between Pegasus II and Ards II had to be postponed because of a frozen pitch at Havelock Park.

With 50 per cent of the cost of hotel bills for the eight squads and officials now in jeopardy there is added urgency to the Irish Hockey Association's efforts to refix the tournament. Officials will meet next Saturday to discuss the issue, with the second and third weekends in May options they will consider.

Frustrating, too, was the decision of the IHA to withdraw its men's and women's under-21 teams from July's Celtic Cup in Scotland, because of financial restraints caused largely by the cost of the senior women's build-up to, and participation in, next month's Olympic Qualifier in New Zealand.

The news came as a blow to both squads and their coaches, Denis Pritchard (men) and Stephen Jackson (women), who intended using the Celtic Cup as preparation for this summer's European Championships (A Division) - the women are hosting the championships in Belfield while the men, who won the Celtic Cup last year, travel to Belgium for their event.

"I certainly wasn't expecting it and didn't know anything about it until I was told the team had been withdrawn," said Jackson. "I was surprised, yes, because it was key to our plans for the summer and our build-up to the Europeans."

The IHA's statement said: "It has been decided that our focus will be on the Senior Celtic Cups and the European Championship tournaments for this year, given our current A Division status in the latter. However, this decision will not prevent the necessary training and build-up for the under-21s' important European A Division tournaments."

With eight men's and women's international squads to finance, from a relatively small fund, the IHA finds itself between the devil and the deep blue sea. Does it pour the bulk of its funding into the senior women's squad, which was, after all, good enough to make it to next month's Olympic Qualifier, or does it invest in the future by giving greater financial support to the underage squads?

Much to the irritation of the senior women's set-up, there is some private fury at the amount of money pumped into their build-up to the Olympic Qualifier, including their recent costly trips to the US and Argentina.

Coach Riet Kuper believes such trips are essential to the development of her squad; others reckon they deprive underage panels of funding.

The IHA is caught in the middle of the argument and is, again privately (Irish hockey is always shy about "speaking out" publicly), being accused of shortsightedness in its division of this year's funding.

It is usually difficult to have sympathy for the IHA but on this issue they probably feel, and with some reason, they just can't win.