A few weeks after President Gabriel Boric will announce that Chile will be a candidate to host the 2036 Olympic Gamesthe country added a new milestone in the organization of mega events: the International Hockey Federation (FIH) chose Santiago as the venue for the next Nations Cup, which will take place in December of this year. However, even though the Diablas have just won a historic bronze medal, The holding of the event is in doubt.
In conversation with AS Chile, Andres de Witt, president of the Field Hockey Federation (Fehoch), explained the panorama: “We have shown that we are responsible, we have management capacity and we can organize things well. That led to them making this offer to us that is in line with having better tournaments and making use of the Pan American legacy, but everyone’s collaboration is needed. “It has to be a public and private effort for this to float.”
– Is State support assured?
– That’s not so clear, it’s tangled. The State works with annual budgets and this is a six-month offer. This requires an extra budgetary effort. We met with the minister (Jaime Pizarro) and the IND, but to date the conversations have been hindered. They are not items that are in the budget and that is how the system works, but it is difficult for me to understand because these opportunities do not occur every day, they are the result of years of work. They told us to bring the event in 2025 and not this year, but those alternatives are more limited by the calendar. There is not much flexibility and that is contradictory.
– Are you saying this because of the announcement of hosting the 2036 Olympic Games?
– If we want to be an Olympic country, it is not just the goal, we have to start living it 12 years before to get there well and train the generations that will be competing in those Olympics (…) Here we would lose an opportunity to be a permanent organizer of high level hockey tournaments. We are applying to hold the Men’s Junior World Cup in 2025, then we want to organize the Hockey World Cup 5 and in 2027 we would like to host the Ladies Junior World Cup again. The sport deserves it. Last year, in the Junior World Cup, we ended up with all the economic results in balance and that shows that the federation managed well.
– How much money is needed to receive the Nations Cup?
– Doing it in Chile costs $500 million and we are requesting 50%, in addition to the stands, which is additional. We manage the other 50% of what it costs and that makes us proud because not every federation does it. We will achieve this with sponsorships and use of television rights, among other means. There is also the Nations Pro League 2, which would have our Diablos as a ranking. They offered us to do it in parallel so that we could have top-level matches, for women and men, with our main competitors. Doing 2×1 would be a tremendous benefit, but that has an additional cost of $200 million.
– Could the Federation assume 100% of the investment?
– You have to be careful not to be irresponsible. So? I know that the minister makes every effort and we try to find formulas that will be studied, but I see the situation as quite difficult.
– What would happen in that context?
– Chile runs the risk of losing its headquarters, absolutely. We have to answer whether we go or not and I am not going to jump into the pool without knowing that it has water. If the Nations Cup is not held in Chile, since it is in December, they will try to do it in an Asian country and we will have to travel. And for our team it is more money to travel than to do it here. The most economically efficient thing is to do it in Santiago de Chile.
– Until when does Chile have time to give a response?
– At the end of the month. On June 30, the ranking is published and it is known who accesses the Nations Cup and the Pro League, and the next day we have to respond.
