FIH President Tayyab Ikram has been in contact with the family of Shahida Raza, a hockey player from Pakistan’s women’s team, who tragically died last month when the boat she was on sank off the coast of Italy. She had been trying to reach the European country to get medical treatment for her three-year-old son.
The FIH President said: “It’s our duty to support and protect our athletes’ and their families’ welfare. We are currently looking at how we can best help to support Shahida Raza’s family, in particular for the provision of medical treatment to her son. In such tragic circumstances, we have to stand next to our athletes.”
Tayyab Ikram also held talks with Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) President Fumio Ogura in order to involve AHF as well.
He thanked the numerous people from the global hockey community who had expressed their profound sadness about this tragedy.
The FIH President highlighted the need to look into how it can be ensured that athletes are able to make earnings that allow them to provide for themselves and their families, so they do not suffer such types of tragedies. Heplans to engage with the FIH Athletes Committee as well as the IOC Athletes’ Committee to have in-depth talks about players’ welfare and wellbeing, a core topic of his presidential agenda.
