India won a majority of FIH annual awards; Olympic Champion Belgium raises eyebrows on result

The year 2021 has been quite inspirational for our both Men’s and Women’s Hockey teams as they achieved 3^rd and 4^th position in the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics. The Indian team winning several awards in the recently concluded event didn’t go down well with Belgium Federation who demanded that awards should be transparent and fair based on the fact their national side won Olympics gold in Men’s category.

Five Indian players including Men’s and Women’s category along with national coaches of both sides received top honor awards based on the highest number of votes and what might have worked in their favor is winning a medal in Hockey after a period of 41 years.

Harmanpreet Singh won the Men’s Player of the year award while Gurjit Kaur bagged the same award in the women’s category.

Men’s team coach Graham Reid and women’s coach Sjoerd Marijne were also voted the best. While Reid is still with the team, Marijne’s tenure ended after the Tokyo Games.

Hockey Belgium questioned the result as none of their players were in top honors after reaching a topmost position in Olympics 2020.

Hockey Belgium is very disappointed with the outcome of the @FIH_Hockey Star Awards. A gold-winning team with multiple nominees in all categories but doesn’t win a single award demonstrates a failure of the voting system. We will work with FIH to ensure a fairer system in the future,” it tweeted

The sentiments were echoed in a similar manner by the national team official handle who said that the credibility of their sport is in a dire situation again.

“We fully agree! This is not normal! The credibility and image of our sport is once again facing hard times. It’s a pitty (sic) @FIH,” stated the Red Lions.

The voting system was divided on the basis of 50 percent engagement of respective coaches and captains and the remaining 50 percent engagement was from media and fans.