The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) announced the formation of a unified body - Hockey India - after the International Hockey Federation (IHF) threatened to take the World Cup away from New Delhi if the country did not have a single national association governing both the men's and women's game.

 

The IOA said it had given provisional affiliation to Hockey India, while disaffiliating the two associations separately running men's and women's hockey.

 

But J.B. Roy, President of the Bengal Hockey Association, a state unit affiliated to the men's Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), said the IOA's act was "illegal" and did not have the backing of existing bodies.

 

He said: "How can the IOA unilaterally decide to form a body without any representation from the stake holders?"

 

He said only the men's and women's national associations had the right to form a unified body, not an outside agency, even if it happened to be the National Olympic Committee.

 

Roy said: "The new association is completely unconstitutional. We have already sent a legal representation to the country's Sports Minister."

 

The IOA has been governing men's field hockey for one year through an administrative panel, after suspending the IHF in the wake of bribery accusations against a top official.

 

Roy had led 28 state units of the IHF in asking the IOA to hold elections for restoring the administration to hockey officials.

 

The IHF's state associations are planning a meeting in New Delhi later this week to voice their opposition to Hockey India.

 

Their protest was supported by the Indian Women's Hockey Association, whose secretary Amrit Bose said she was against "the IOA drafting a new constitution without involving state associations."

 

The IOA president Suresh Kalmadi saidthat Bose was a member of the seven-member committee appointed to restructure field hockey associations and unify them into one organisation.

 

Bose insisted that "state associations should be involved."