Leandro Negre says South Africa denied Rio 2016 trip for being a ‘white man’s sport’

“That’s been a very bitter pill to swallow. We have a very talented group of players. The team that played against India for the last place at the London Olympics, which we won, and that group of players hasn’t changed a lot,” Reid-Ross, who made his Delhi Waveriders debut on Wednesday in the Hockey India League, says, carefully choosing his words.

Leandro Negre, president of the International Hockey Federation (FIH), was less diplomatic. At the annual lunch of the Hockey Writers Club in London on Wednesday, Negre said South Africa were denied because hockey is still seen as a ‘white man’s sport’ in the country. “At the beginning I think it was a political issue, that is my personal feeling. I think after (Nelson) Mandela, they still think of hockey as a white sport. The National Federation perhaps didn’t do much to attract black people to play hockey and maybe that is the feeling of SASCOC,” Negre was quoted as saying by http://www.insidethegames.biz.

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The quota system, which calls for integration of black players into the national teams, has been a sensitive issue in South African sport for long. Negre insisted this was his personal opinion but unwittingly, the Spanish administrator may have thrown the cat among pigeons.

Reid-Ross, however, does not dwell on the issue. He speaks to us before Negre commented on the issue and is more concerned about the future of the sport in the country, which already looks bleak. South Africa may have finished above India at the London Games but they have witnessed a steady decline ever since. While India have progressed to seventh in the world, South Africa are currently ranked 15th, below even Ireland and Canada.

Grim picture

The 29-year-old acknowledges this could be one of the reasons for SASCOC’s decision but he highlights the grim picture of South African hockey. “The team hasn’t changed (since London 2012) but the situation in South African hockey has. We don’t have any sponsors, we don’t have any fundings or preparation for the national team. Players are forced to pay their own way for every major tournament we’ve got to play in. That’s tough,” he says.

Reid-Ross is among the four players who earn a living professionally by playing club hockey in Europe, and now in HIL. Most other players have a proper job that supports their playing career. They offered to pay for their own expenses to compete at Rio but SASCOC rejected the offer. Money, however, wasn’t the issue. SASCOC has enough funds but they are not willing to spend on teams with little chance of winning a medal.

It’s a scenario quite similar to what Indian sport found itself in late last year, when the sports ministry decided to set certain parameters for individual athletes and teams to travel of major sporting events. After receiving a lot of flak from the sportsmen and federation, they had to relax the norms. Unfortunately for them, South African hockey team’s protest fail to create an impact. Even the IOC and FIH decided not to interfere.

Reid-Ross says the decision to withdraw the team from Olympics can have a huge impact on the future of the sport in the country, as there will hardly be any motivation for a youngster to pursue the sport. “It’s a serious concern for us, something that we as players group have spoken about. The biggest argument we have as a national team is why would kids play the sport? What will keep them playing the sport when you can’t earn a living and you have to work almost full time and play hockey full time to try and survive,” he says.

Club over country

Eventually, he says the players may start choosing club over country. For him, international hockey will now be restricted to European club games and the HIL, where he won the title last year with Ranchi Rays. “I play my club hockey in Holland, Amsterdam and I can’t use the excuse of playing for South Africa anymore to miss cup games because they are the ones paying my salary. A lot of senior players have jobs, families and they have life outside hockey. That becomes a priority, myself included,” says Reid-Ross, who is also studying sports management from the Johan Cryuff Institute in Amsterdam.

He is trying to put behind this disappointment and focus on the HIL. But when the Olympics come, he admits it will be tough to watch. “We have handed a free ticket to another country (New Zealand). When the competition comes around in Rio, that’s going to be tough to watch,” he says.