The International Hockey Federation and its Asian counterpart are in no hurry to press the panic button over qualifications for the 2024 Olympics in light of the postponed Asian Games later this year and already have a Plan B in place.
“If the Games are going to be held then it’s fine and if there is going to be further postponement, we will know that also very soon. As a member of the OCA, I am monitoring the situation very closely and around September 2023 we can execute our Plan B and have an independent Olympic qualifying event for Asia,” Asian Hockey Federation CEO and secretary general Dato Tayyab Ikram said in an interaction on Wednesday.
“We still have enough time to 2024. We are very clear that if a decision is taken that the Asian Games will be held definitely in September 2023 or before, depending on the decision from the OCA, we will be in the same position to have the Olympic qualifiers in September.
