PTI

New Delhi, Apr 3: In a scathing attack on Indian coach Joaquim Carvalho and his support staff for criticising umpires at the Olympic qualifiers in Chile, the International Hockey Federation on Thursday warned that their "utterances are under review" and may invite "sanctions."

Irked by the Indian Hockey Federation's poor handling of the affairs and their criticism of umpires and the FIH for the men's team's failure to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, the world governing body said non-adherence to the code of conduct might land "persons concerned" in trouble.

After the Santiago debacle, IHF president KPS Gill, Carvalho and other support staff started a blame game, holding FIH and poor umpiring responsible for the Indian team's defeat. Carvalho had even blamed the Tournament Director for visiting the team hotel in the middle of night to reprimand a player -- Gurbaj Singh.

FIH official Bob Davidzon, also the Project Director of 'Promoting Indian Hockey,' ridiculed the Indian coach suggesting that he should know the rules of the event and try to be disciplined.

"It is in the power of the manager to agree with the Tournament Director on a time and venue to have the compulsory 'reading out' of sentences to the players involved in an incident and that does not have to take place 'in the middle of the night.'" Davidzon said in a statement.

He said Carvalho and his support staff might be punished for lashing out at tournament officials and violating the FIH code of conduct. "The Code of Conduct is very clear that all participants in a tournament... must not involve a personal attack on another player, umpire, appointed official or administrator.' Non-adherence can lead to sanctions by the FIH for the persons concerned and the utterances by the coaching staff of India upon its return are at the moment under review and sanctions may apply," he warned.

Davidzon said the "unjustified criticism" of the umpires by the Indian camp was due to the lack of knowledge about the rules of the game, a trend originating from the top of IHF.

"The knowledge of the rules and the tournament briefing for the team and its staff was (as with some other teams) well below par, which leads to unjustified criticism on and appeal to the umpires and possibly 'human' reaction from their side. The level of abuse and criticism of umpires that seems to be acceptable in India is certainly not the international standard. It is not only the players that are at fault in this respect. It starts from the top of Federations, through dignitaries and team management downwards."

Davidzon said India should have given their inputs about tournament composition and schedule well in advance instead of cribbing just before the start of the event.

"Match schedules for (qualifying) tournaments are circulated well in advance to the participating countries. Then is the time to put in any requests that may be accommodated or not. Once participating in the tournament, it does not help to put doubt in players' minds that they are faced with an 'unfair' schedule."

Davidzon blamed India's poor plans about travel and acclimatisation of players which had its effect on the ultimate result of the side. "Athletes deserve proper attention. Airlines should serve the players at their reasonable convenience and athletes should not be used to fill various cheaper flights. Proper and timely planning is a must. Clear job descriptions for team managers have been made available by the FIH (including travel arrangements) but unfortunately have hardly been applied."

Taking another swipe at Carvalho, Davidzon said the coach should select his associates and the players only on the basis of merit.

"Any coach in charge of any national team should select the best players available and surround himself with the best staff specialists, selected on merit only. He should apply the latest knowledge regarding physical training, video analysis of games and training, mental training, medicals, competitor analysis etc. And in case not mastering any of these areas himself, take all the help available to get maximum result."

Davidzon said the lessons learnt at Santiago should help the Indian women's team in their quest for an Olympic berth in Kazan, Russia, later this month.