An Egyptian is now chief of the Arab Hockey Federation, reports Ghada Abdel-Kader President of Egypt's Hockey Federation Seif Hamid was unanimously elected president of the Arab Hockey Federation (AHF). During a general assembly meeting of the Arab federation held at the headquarters of Egyptian Olympic Committee, Hamid, who is also a board member of the Egyptian Olympic Committee, won the presidential seat after the withdrawal of his closet rival, the incumbent Dawoud Ali, president of Oman Hockey Association who was president of the AHF for the last two terms. The headquarters of the AHF will also be moved from Muscat to Egypt. "The elections were fraternal before being formal," Ali said in post-poll statements. The AHF has been in Oman since 2002. "We accepted the UAE and Qatar in the AHF. The federation has had strong ties with Egypt since I was a player in 1980. All the coaches in Oman are Egyptian. Thanks to Egypt, we have taken big strides in introducing the sport in schools," added Ali. Ismail Al-Banna of the UAE is now first vice president and Libyan Mansour Al-Haji the second deputy. The winning AHF board members were Omani Mohamed bin Shandeh, Sudanese Hashim Mohamed, Moroccan Gamal Glali and Qatari Hassan Abdel-Rahman. n recognition of his efforts and achievements, Dawood Ali was selected AHF honorary president. The post of AHF secretary-general was given to Ashraf Farahat who doubles as vice chairman of the Egyptian federation. The women's representative in the union, Alia Azami, was elected a member of the AHF's administrative board. During the general assembly meeting, the agenda from 2010 to 2014 was high on the list of topics. "In the first meeting of the new board of directors we discussed our plan to popularise hockey and establish federations in all Arab countries," Hamid told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The plan depends mainly on the Faculty of Sports Education from which hockey teachers have graduated, to spread the game in schools. "Second, we can produce good teams from the police and military academies. We have a good relationship with the Arab Police Federation with its headquarters here in Egypt." The first hockey league for primary schools will be held in 2011. For the first time field hockey will be included in the 2011 pan-Arab Games in Doha, Qatar. Egypt, Oman, Libya, Qatar and Emirates will participate. "We have ambitious hockey plans for Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia that, when carried out, will be a great achievement for Arab hockey," Hamid said.
