Elena Norman, CEO of Indian Hockey, resigned from her position after serving for more than a decade. It came after the recent resignation of the Indian women’s hockey team coach Janneke Schopman. Her resignation could become a complication as during Norman’s tenure, Indian men’s team secured an Olympic medal, a bronze and ended 41-year long wait of the country and the women finished at fourth, after having qualified to the Games for the first time in 36 years.
In her tenure, HI also launched the Hockey India League but later it was discontinued. India also hosted back-to-back World Cups in 2018 and 2023 (the first time any country had hosted successive WCs).
Norman resigned on Tuesday owing to federation politics. “Of course, it’s disappointing and sad. But it has become too difficult (for me to continue) now. It is a good time to move on,” She said. From some reliable sources, it has been learnt that she didn’t receive her salary for the last three months and only got it last week after she sent a legal notice. The notice resulted in HI’s legal counsel stepping in and then the NSF finally paid her remuneration.
Janneke Schopman, the Indian hockey women’s team coach said, “I come from a culture where women are respected and valued. I don’t feel that here…for me, coming from the Netherlands and coming from the USA, this country is extremely difficult as a woman. Coming from a culture, where you have an opinion and are valued for it, it’s really hard.” Schopman accused HI of treating women’s team unfairly.
In less than a week, both the women quit their positions giving similar reasons, difficult working conditions. Schopman said it was ‘very, very difficult’ to deal with people in HI while Norman told the Press Trust of India that factionalism within HI was one of the reasons for her quitting.
HI president Dilip Tirkey in an email to the board pointed at the ‘difficult working conditions’. Both the women hailed Tirkey’s support but did not mention the name of the other key office-bearer, the secretary-general Bholanath Singh. Norman highlighted the existence of two factions within Hockey India, with Tirkey and herself on one side, Singh, executive director Cdr. R K Srivastava, and treasurer Sekar J Manoharan on the other.
Though Singh debunked the claims of any feud between him and Tirkey. In a joint statement, both of them elucidate that the recent statements by Norman claiming divisions within the organization are false. They stated that they are focusing on rebuilding the women’s team and supporting the men’s team for their participation in the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris. They expressed their allegiance to excellence and providing all the necessary infrastructure and training.
The Olympics are just five months away now and getting such a big change at one of the most important Olympic sports in India is quite concerning. But the question that draws our attention is, what now? And what’s equally concerning is, the allegation of non-payment of salaries. HI is a well-funded organization and still if they can’t afford to pay their top employee, how worse are the things?
