Hockey India threatened to downgrade Odisha’s hockey association over governance lapses, including the appointment of bureaucrats to head all 30 district units, even as the state is the principal sponsor of the Indian men’s and women’s teams.
In a show-cause notice dated October 7, Hockey India said the Hockey Association of Odisha (HAO) failed to comply with its bye-laws on democratic elections, transparency, independence and good governance citing that collectors and district magistrates continued to be the presidents of every district hockey unit, while additional district magistrates were secretaries. Flagging grounds of non-compliance, Hockey India secretary general Bhola Nath Singh said HAO did not have verifiable election records for all 30 district units, failed to align their bye-laws with the state association’s amended rules and questions over the authority of representatives nominated to the state association’s general body. The electoral officer appointed for HAO’s 2026 elections said none of the 30 district units of Odisha submitted notices, minutes, results or other documents establishing that their present governing bodies had been elected.
Hockey India said that when office-bearers hold positions by virtue of their government designations rather than election by members, the governing bodies cannot be considered democratically constituted as the independence of the district units from the state administration can be questioned.
Hockey India also questioned the failure to amend the bye-laws of the district units to align with those of the state association. Hockey India, however, asked how democratic elections could be conducted in units whose bye-laws remained unamended and whose office-bearers occupied positions ex officio. “In Odisha, Hockey is an emotion. With the consistent efforts of former CM Naveen Patnaik, hockey in Odisha and across India touched new heights.
its affiliated district units continued to operate under unamended rules, according to the notice Although HAO adopted amended bye-laws at a special general body meeting on August 2. In a letter dated September 29, HAO had informed Hockey India that district units had been asked to hold their annual general meetings and elections by the third week of October.
It said the state association’s own annual general meeting and election would be completed by the last week of the month. In the last two years of apathy towards hockey by the present double engine government, there has been a fall in the quality of hockey in the state,” said former sports minister Tushar Kanti Behera.
