England Hockey accused of 'institutional and structural bias'

Barford Tigers were given a 12-month ban, suspended for two years, in 2020 - but that sanction was overturned on appeal

England Hockey has been accused of "institutional and structural bias" by a club that appealed successfully against a 12-month suspended ban for breaching a code of conduct.

The chairman of the Birmingham-based club, Gurmej Pawar, has written to England Hockey accusing it of a "shocking abuse of power" after an appeal panel quashed the sanctions.

"It has become clear that there were shortcomings in the initial process, and we at England Hockey are saddened and disappointed by this and recognise that the process needs to be reviewed and changed," England Hockey chief executive Nick Pink said in a statement.

Charges were originally brought against Barford Tigers for a breach of England Hockey's code of ethics and behaviour.

This followed complaints in 2019 by Yardley Hockey Club and City of Birmingham Hockey Club that related to sexism and harassment offences.

In 2020, a disrepute complaint panel imposed a 12-month ban on Barford Tigers, a sanction that was suspended for two years.

But an appeal by the club was upheld on 8 October, with the panel saying England Hockey had relied upon an "invalid application of the disrepute offence regulations" and the procedure was "fundamentally flawed".

Pawar told BBC Sport: "This has been a very difficult two years for everyone at the club involved in this case and we have always felt that this was a grave injustice.

"England Hockey is an institution with dozens of full-time staff, including a full-time legal team who were not only complicit in tarnishing the reputation of a small inner-city club run by volunteers but failed to follow the rules that they themselves wrote. It begs the question, how and why was this allowed to happen?

"We were relieved that an independent appeal panel were able to look at the facts objectively and all findings and sanctions against the club were quashed."

In a letter sent to Pink on Tuesday, Pawar wrote: "The findings that England Hockey broke and disregarded their own rules is a disturbing conclusion and, whilst a shocking abuse of power, is something that we suspected throughout the course of dealing with England Hockey.

"In effect, we felt that we were not only fighting the case but also a system riddled with institutional and structural bias."

He continued: "This was a case of the national governing body bending the rules to serve their own narrative, that an ethnically diverse club must be in the wrong."

In the letter, Pawar called for a full apology from the governing body, an investigation into how it broke the rules and an overhaul of its complaint procedures.

He said: "No institution should be allowed to be a law unto itself, and there is no room for the outdated discriminatory attitudes that Barford Tigers Hockey Club and others have endured from England Hockey in hockey, sport or in society. Enough is enough."

Pawar previously co-signed a letter to England Hockey accusing it of "endemic racism".

When the 12-month suspended ban was initially handed out to Barford Tigers in 2020, the disrepute complaint panel described its findings against the club's vice-president Dr Sukhdev Gill and some of the findings against Barford Tigers as a whole as "particularly serious".

Barford had "robustly denied" the majority of allegations during the disrepute complaint panel. They lodged an appeal in relation to the findings about Barford at club level.

Sanctions that specifically related to the conduct of Dr Gill in his capacity as an umpire were not appealed against. These related to what the panel said were "highly derogatory comments" made to an umpiring colleague, and acting in a "confrontational, inconsiderate and offensive" manner towards female players.

England Hockey said Barford had successfully appealed against nine of the 11 complaints before the England Hockey Appeal Panel.

"In terms of volume of evidence, complexity and duration, this case is unprecedented and has exerted our process in a manner it simply has not experienced previously," added Pink.

"It was the first time that our disciplinary processes have been tested to this extent and we have taken on the learnings from this, and as such, we will share our new processes at the next England Hockey AGM in March.

Pink said "relevant documents" in relation to the case will be published to improve transparency and the outcome of future disciplinary proceedings will be shared.