Harendra Singh receives official reprimand from FIH for his outburst against umpires

India’s chief coach Harendra Singh has been officially reprimanded by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) for his outburst against on-field umpires after the home team’s quarterfinal loss to Netherlands in the men’s hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar

The reprimand was handed down to Harendra after he and India’s analytical coach Chris Ciriello were called for an official hearing by the FIH on Saturday.

Eyeing to rewrite history after a hiatus of 43 years, India lost 1-2 to Netherlands in the fourth and last quarterfinal to crash out of the tournament in front of a packed Kalinga Stadium here on last Thursday.

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Soon after the defeat, Harendra blamed poor umpiring for his side’s unexpected early ouster, saying the FIH seriously need to address the issue as his side has been on the receiving end of poor on-field decisions twice this year.

The India coach’s vitriolic outburst didn’t go down well with the FIH with its technical delegate Christian Deckenbrock terming Harendra’s outburst as “inappropriate” and “unacceptable”.

“The FIH Technical Delegate has decided that India’s coach Harendra Singh committed a breach of the Code of Conduct (Level 1.2.k: Public criticism of, or inappropriate public comment in relation to an incident at the press conference following the match between India vs Netherlands,” the FIH said in a statement on Sunday.

“As a result of this breach, Harendra Singh received an official reprimand. The FIH Technical delegate indicated that the statements from India’s coach at the press conference regarding umpires were unacceptable.” The world body further stated that this official reprimand will be recorded by the FIH and can be taken into account if Harendra breaches the Code of Conduct again at a future event.