GBOHL: A new Great Britain Olympic Hockey Business and Performance Framework Agreement was signed by the three Member Associations of England, Scotland, and Wales at a board meeting of Great Britain Olympic Hockey earlier this week.

ÔÇ£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,ÔÇØ Roger Self, President of GBOHL, said.

ÔÇ£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.ÔÇØ

The Nominated Country for the current Olympic cycle is England, and the England men's and women's teams will be seeking to qualify GB directly for the Beijing games from the EuroHockey Nations Championships to be held in August 2007 in Manchester.

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. 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.2. The Nominated Country system will continue in the future. The 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. 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.

3. The identification and selection processes for GB potential athletes and Olympic squads will be improved by:

  • Holding formal twice yearly meetings (normally adjacent to an event), throughout the Olympic cycle, of all Home Nation Coaches and Performance Directors led 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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