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11th
May 2006
 A
New Beginning for Great Britain
Olympic Hockey
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Great Britain Olympic Hockey Limited
PRESS RELEASE, 10 May 2006
Great Britain Olympic Hockey Limited (GBOHL)
is the body responsible for the development and
administration of hockey in Great Britain (GB)
related to the Olympic Games (OG). This role
includes the preparation, selection and
performance of the men’s and women’s GB hockey
squads and their participation in the OG and
other relevant competitions and tournaments.
Ultimately, it is the body charged with
delivering Olympic success for the sport of
hockey. GBOHL comprises three members: the
Hockey Associations of England, Scotland, and
Wales.
GBOHL issue the following press statement after
signing a new legal Great Britain Olympic Hockey
Business and Performance Framework Agreement at
its Board Meeting on May 9 2006, which was
exchanged between GBOHL and the three Member
Associations of England, Scotland, and Wales.
Roger Self, President of GBOHL said “This is one
the most exciting moments in the history of
Great Britain Olympic Hockey. The Board and its
Member Associations have confirmed their
commitment to ensuring that GB is successful at
Olympic level. There is now a clear framework
setting out the respective obligations and
responsibilities of all parties to ensure that
athletes from all home nations have the
opportunity to succeed at Beijing in 2008,
London in 2012 and following Olympiads. I am
delighted with the hard work, trust, dedication
and performance focus that all members of the GB
Board and their Home Nation Boards have shown in
developing this unique understanding and mutual
commitment.
Devolution has meant that each of the Hockey
Associations of England, Scotland and Wales are
funded up to World Cup level by their respective
Sports Councils. This provides opportunities for
a large number of Home Nations’ athletes to gain
top flight competitive experience in their
respective national teams, but also GBOHL with
the challenge of how best to optimise these
benefits, with the objective of successful OG
performance without duplicating the cost and
efforts of the Home Nation set ups.
GBOHL is subject to a unique qualification
process for GB teams to participate at an OG.
This process was set by the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) and Federation of
International Hockey (FIH) and agreed with the
British Olympic Association (BOA). The OG
qualification process requires the nomination of
one of the Member Associations as the “Nominated
Country” to achieve qualification to the OG
qualifying tournament or direct qualification
for the OG through performance at the EuroHockey
Nations Championships immediately preceding the
relevant OG. The Nominated Country for the
current Olympic cycle is England, and the
England men’s and women’s teams will thus be
seeking to qualify GB directly for the Beijing
games from the EuroHockey Nations Championships
to be held in August 2007 in Manchester. This OG
qualification process was recently amended by
the FIH to expand the number of teams that can
qualify through continental championships or,
failing that, via Olympic qualification
tournaments.
The GBOHL challenge of qualifying for the
Beijing Olympics and, of meeting its targets for
2008, will be important key performance
indicators en route to success at the OG in
London in 2012, and for funding in the period
2009-2113 following the Beijing Games.
Ever since the London 2012 OG were announced in
July 2005, the GBOHL Board and the Member
Association Boards, have been working hard to
secure a new robust Business and Performance
Framework Agreement which will ensure success on
the pitch for our Olympic athletes and improve
governance processes to deliver that success.
In addition, a Great Britain Performance Plan
has been prepared and is in the process of final
discussion with UK Sport. It is the leadership
plan for each of the three Home Nations’
performance plans to ensure GB’s success. The
plan includes a proposal for a new GB
competition format to provide athletes with
clear and transparent selection opportunities
and also to replicate tournament play similar to
that experienced at international events.
The successful submission of the Great Britain
Performance Plan, together with the Business and
Performance Framework Agreement, will trigger
the initial release of 2012 funds from UK Sport
for the period 2006-2009.
Key highlights of this new agreement are:-
| 1. |
Performance standards in all three
Home Nations will be raised as a result
of the implementation of the Great
Britain Performance Plan that links and
drives performance across each of
England, Scotland and Wales. This plan
focuses on both the 2008 and 2012 OGs. |
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| 2. |
The Nominated Country system will
continue in the future, as it has in the
past. The big difference in the future
is that the Nominated Country for each
Olympic cycle will provide leadership
through their Performance Director and
Head Coaches (for each gender) being
appointed as GB Performance Director and
Head Coaches for all four years of the
Olympic cycle. This will result in
consistent leadership throughout the
four year cycle to obtain qualification
and to prepare the Olympic squads. The
Nominated Country for the subsequent
Olympic cycle will be appointed after
the completion of an OG, following a
formal submission to the GBOHL board
against clearly defined criteria |
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| 3. |
The identification and selection
processes for GB potential athletes and
Olympic squads will be improved by:- |
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Holding formal twice yearly meetings
(normally adjacent to an event), throughout
the Olympic cycle, of all Home Nation
Coaches and Performance Directors lead by
the GB Performance Director. These meetings
will focus on the identification of
potential GB Olympic athletes for the
immediate and next Olympic cycles. They will
also set standards for sports science and
medicine across the three Home Nations. |
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The proposal to set up a GB Super League
(for each gender), which will provide an
annual competition for all potential GB
athletes. This is likely to take place in
April/May each year and will comprise five
teams from England, two from Scotland and
one from Wales. Only GB eligible athletes
will be able to take part and the format
will be such that it replicates
international hockey to simulate tournament
conditions. Potential GB officials and
umpires will also be assessed and developed
at these competitions. These will start in
2007. |
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Creating a GB Under 20 team which will
compete in the Australian Youth Olympic
Festival for the first time in early 2007,
and in subsequent years to ensure
competitive experience is gained in a
variety of regions of the world. Selection
processes will commence in July. |
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Giving clear authority for the GB Head
Coaches to select the Olympic squads and
support staff under the direction of the GB
Performance Director to ensure delivery of
results at the OG. |
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The GBOHL Board is delighted to announce
that David Faulkner, the present England
Hockey Performance Director and Jason Lee,
England’s Senior Men’s Head Coach and Danny
Kerry, England’s Senior Women’s Head Coach,
with immediate effect, will take on
additional GB Performance Director and Head
Coach roles respectively for this Olympic
cycle. |
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| 4. |
The GBOHL Board recently announced that
funding from UK Sport for Olympic success will
be administered by the Nominated Country in the
relevant Olympic cycle, both to achieve Olympic
qualification and to select and prepare the
squads for the OGs. Funds will be used to strengthen coaching, to
obtain increased support in sports science and
medicine, and to increase the frequency of
domestic training, assessment camps and
tournaments. It will also enable more
international competitive opportunities and be
used to provide financial support for GB
identified athletes. Athlete financial support
will be introduced with clear obligations and
responsibilities. GB squads will be assessed
throughout the 4 year cycle but, the first time
in this current cycle they will be able to
compete as GB teams, will be after the 2007
EuroHockey Nations Championships. |
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| 5. |
A full review and overhaul of GBOHL’s
corporate governance processes has been
completed. In the future, the key role of the
GBOHL Board will be to:- |
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Conduct an annual review of the
performance of each Home Nation under
the obligations enshrined in the GB
Business and Performance Framework
Agreement, particularly that, of the
Nominated Country. |
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Evaluate proposals, on a quadrennial
basis, for the selection of the
Nominated Country for the next Olympic
cycle, and choose which country is to be
the Nominated Country for that cycle.
Clear criteria have been drawn up for
this process. |
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The GBOHL Board will be
strengthened by the selection and
appointment of two independent directors
with relevant experience. This process
will commence immediately. |
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| 6. |
The agreement that has been signed by all
three Home Nations and GBOHL enshrines each
party’s responsibilities and obligations in
detail. |
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Finally, I would like to stress on behalf of the
GBOHL Board how much confidence we have in
England’s performance and coaching leadership as
the Nominated Country. We have seen a marked
improvement in the past year in their results
and in the way they have gone about delivering
those results as witnessed by their World Cup
qualifier results following on so closely from
their Commonwealth Games campaigns.”
Philip Kimberley, Executive Chairman of England
Hockey said “We are delighted that each Home
Nation has confirmed their desire to drive
towards the goal of enduring Olympic success.
The framework agreement provides a clear
understanding of our commitment to provide
performance leadership throughout GB whilst we
are privileged to hold Nominated Country status.
We will continue to strive to discharge the
responsibility for securing Olympic
qualification to provide athletes from all the
Home Nations with an opportunity to succeed at
the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. We will also
ensure we provide a leadership framework
including the proposed launch of a new
competition for potential GB Olympic athletes
along with regular, formal engagement with the
performance teams of Wales and Scotland.”
Jacky Burnett, President of Scottish Hockey said
“ We are extremely pleased with the signing of
the framework agreement as it sets out a clear
understanding of how the three National
Associations will work together to provide all
our athletes with the best opportunity to
compete successfully at the OG in 2008, 2012 and
beyond. This agreement re-confirms our
commitment to Great Britain Olympic Hockey and
provides Scottish athletes with a clearer, more
frequent and transparent way of being assessed
throughout the first three years of an Olympic
cycle up to qualification being achieved by the
Nominated Country. It will also provide seamless
integration when the GB training squads are
selected”
Anne Ellis, President of Welsh Hockey said “We
are thrilled that, after detailed discussions,
GBOHL has been able to achieve a unified
agreement that success at Olympic level is the
primary goal for all athletes from the three
Home Nations. This commitment is supported by a
clear understanding of all of our
responsibilities to achieving this success. The
agreement provides for regular assessment of all
athletes from the Home Nations. It also provides
a transparent opportunity for any Welsh athlete
to be included in the GB Olympic squad and to
achieve the ultimate goal of any hockey player -
an Olympic medal.”
Contact for comment:-
David Faulkner
Great Britain Performance Director
Tel - 07966 305817
Or, alternatively
Philip Kimberley
Executive Chairman
England Hockey
Tel – 07836 787539
Click here to download this Press Release as an
MS Word document
For information regarding the Welsh Hockey Union,
please contact
Chris Brewer on 02920 573940
or email
[email protected]
Please note: Information
published in news stories was correct at the time
of publication. Information, circumstances and data
may have chance since.
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