KARACHI, 14 December 2007 — Pakistani hockey officials are looking to stage an international tournament next summer to help prepare their team for the 2008 Olympic Games but concede that the so-called security issue remains a big hurdle.

A top Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) official told Arab News that the PHF welcomes a promise made by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) of allocating an international event to Pakistan next year. PHF secretary Khalid Mehmood said that Pakistan want to host such an event in July so that their team can play against some of the world’s top teams before beginning their campaign in the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing in August.

The FIH relocated the 2007 Champions Trophy from Lahore to Kuala Lumpur after some of the participating nations expressed concerns over the safety of their players in Pakistan.

The PHF protested against the FIH move but were unable to stop the game’s ruling body from taking the Champions Trophy away from Pakistan.

Later, FIH president Els van Breda Vriesman promised that Pakistan would be given the right to host a major international event in 2008. “We would like to get such an event from the FIH before the Olympic Games,” Khalid, a former Olympian, said.

“Because so far we have failed to confirm any good (pre-Olympic) matches for our team and an international event in Pakistan just before the Olympic Games would be perfect for our preparations for Beijing,” said the PHF secretary.

However, Khalid conceded that the top teams might not be interested in playing here because of the ‘so-called security problem’.

“We believe Pakistan is as safe a place for visiting sports people as any other place in the world,” he said. “But we are also aware that some people in other parts of the world don’t think that way, which is why security, unfortunately, would remain an issue for us.”

The PHF has been contacting top hockey-playing nations for Test matches ahead of the Olympics. They have talked to Germany, Holland, Spain and England for such matches in the summer but so far neither of the countries has responded positively.

Pakistan’s below-par performance in the recently-concluded Champions Trophy has made matters worse for the three-time Olympic champions.

The Greenshirts finished seventh in the event played in Kuala Lumpur and thus failed to qualify for the 2008 Champions Trophy to be held in Rotterdam (Holland) before the Beijing Games. The elite six-nation tournament would have been a perfect event for the Pakistanis to get ready for the Olympics.

Pakistan’s unimpressive results on the international circuit in recent years have dented their standing and now top teams are not interested to play against them any more.

In recent times, Pakistan have been forced to look to minnow events like a quadrangular tournament they played in Moscow this summer. Once again, the PHF is planning to send their team to a second-grade tournament to be held in Dublin next summer if it fails to find any better matches for the national team ahead of the Beijing assignment.

“We have the option of playing a four-nation event in Ireland in the summer but believe that it won’t be enough for our team which has to give positive performance in the Olympic Games,” he said.

The last of Pakistan’s three Olympic titles came in 1984 in Los Angeles and since then they have failed to even reach the final of an Olympic event.