LAHORE: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has retained Dutch coach Michel van den Heuvel as the chief coach of Pakistan until the 2012 London Olympics after weeks of deliberations that ended with the Executive Board meeting in Lahore on Wednesday.

“Heuvel will remain with Pakistan until the Olympics after the Federal Sports Ministry reached an agreement with him. PHF will honour the terms and conditions laid down in the Heuvel’s contract,” PHF Secretary Asif Bawja said while addressing a news conference after the meeting.

He said the presence of the foreign coach will definitely improve the performance of the team as has been witnessed as the Asian Games and will ensure a desirable performance in London.

“It was our desire to have him on a long term assignment and we are glad to have him until the all-important Olympic Games.” he added.

Heuvel will be assisted Khawaja Muhammad Junaid (Manager), Ajmal Khan Lodhi and Shahid Ali Khan (Assistant Coaches).

Rana Mujahid Ali was named (Manager/Chief Coach) of the junior team whose coaches are Danish Kaleem, Anjum Saeed and Ahmed Alam.

Defending the appointment of Mujahid who is also the director of PHF hockey academies, Bajwa said the decision had been taken after thorough consideration and will work towards improving the performance of the junior team drastically.

“He (Muajhid) is a capable former hockey player and we expect that he will duly fit in the new job assigned to him.”

Central contract to 25 players for a three month time period were also chalked out at the meeting. The contracts would be extended based on the performance of players.

“We will be introducing three categories of contracts, A, B and C based on player fitness, experience and performance in the recent past. The contracts and the names of the players will be announced in a couple of days with the mutual understanding of selection committee and team management,” he asserted.

To a question about the upcoming Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia, he said the training camp to prepare the team for the event would be held next month. It must be noted here that Pakistan has not played any international matches since the 2010 Asian Games and are likely to go into the Azlan Shah Cup with little or no games after their series against India was postponed.

Bajwa also warned players from taking part in illegal international leagues and tournaments not sanctioned by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

“Games ruling body, the FIH has chalked out a policy on this issue and any player taking part in an illegal tournament will be banned for two year and the association will face a one year ban,” he said.

He said PHF will give a development grant of Rs 300,000 to Punjab and Rs 200,000 to other affiliated provincial bodies.

The Executive Board meeting also decided all the affiliated bodies of the PHF would be bound to transfer the sponsorship amount  of domestic tournaments, above Rs  1million to the national federation's account.

“The sponsorship amount less than Rs 1million will be the assets of the concerned body which will organize the tournament and if it gets sponsorship amount more than Rs. 1million then it would be shifted to the PHF's account,” Bajwa said.