To achieve this, the whole hockey community around the world needs to put all their efforts on three areas: increasing participation - ie, bringing more players to hockey - increasing hockey's fanbase and increasing hockey's resources. Of course, FIH has to lead the way!

Therefore, we have a number of initiatives to take - or enhance - and I would like to highlight a few thereafter.

Whilst it is essential that the growth of hockey continues in the biggest national associations, we at FIH need to support in the first place the smaller-ranked hockey nations. During my Presidency at the helm of FIH, I will make sure that FIH's primary objective - which is to develop the game precisely - is at the centre stage of everything we do. Development is my passion and I would qualify myself as a development ambassador. On top of FIH, I’m counting on the five Continental Federations to be active leaders in this area but I'm also appealing to our biggest member associations to play their part and share best practices with smaller ones. Solidarity can only be beneficial for hockey, in its globality. In the same vein, I’m advocating for regional training hubs which nearby countries could access, with a co-shared infrastructure. Furthermore, I want to activate the FIH Foundation, as this can help development projects and enhance opportunities for development at all levels.

Hockey is a truly fun, fast and skilful sport; and we can be proud of our track record in terms of values, such as gender equality, respect and fair play. Have we done enough to demonstrate this to the world, to all sports fans, to the youth? We need to do more in promoting this, intensifying the use of technology and digital communications platforms available today. The top athletes of our sport - whom we need to help for their career, further education and psychological well-being - also have a central role to play in this regard. Fans today express a lot of interest in learning more about athletes; "behind the scenes" stories are really popular. Together with athletes, we need to be more open and proactive for such content. Also, by promoting our values, we can only gain the trust of parents to have their kids starting hockey. "Start-play-stay" is the motto of our development activities. This is not just a nice formula; this integrates very concrete actions for making this vision real.

We are privileged to have several formats which complement each other. Let's make the most of this too! Of course, the 11-a-side version remains the traditional form of hockey. It is also the Olympic version. But indoor hockey is another outstanding format. Personally, I'm a strong advocate of indoor hockey. It brings non-stop action and creates a really special atmosphere among spectators. Let's not forget that for a number of countries this is also the only way players can still practice their beloved sport adequately when weather conditions become challenging. I invite all sports fans to turn their eyes to Pretoria, South Africa, in February next year for the sixth edition of the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup and you will see for yourselves!

A wonderful opportunity to grow our sport globally is offered by Hockey5s. As the name suggests, teams are made of five players each. Matches take place on a smaller pitch. Similar to indoor hockey, there are perimeter boards which keep the ball almost permanently in play. And the goal-scoring ratio is really high. All these parameters make Hockey5s really attractive for the youth! The reduced size of the pitch enables installing a provisional structure in the hearts of cities, giving to Hockey5s that urban touch which goes well with today's society. This is also perfect for cities eager to create entertaining activities for their local population. Last but not least, the smaller number of players needed is a big help for many nations. Not only will they be able to play, but they will also have the chance to put their names on the qualification or even the final tournaments of an FIH Hockey5s World Cup!

We need to work on inclusivity in our sport. I hear sometimes that our sport is for the social upper-class. While this might have been partly true in some regions of the world, this time is over! We can pride ourselves to be a gender-equal sport. Fifty-on per cent of the 30 million participants in the world are girls or women. All our events are absolutely identical for women and men. But we need to enhance our diversity, in particular when it comes to ethnicity. I feel we're in a good way, with national associations taking initiatives to recruit young players from all backgrounds. But we can - and will - do more.

We need to make sure that hockey fans - and sport fans in general - have easy access to watch hockey, be it through our broadcast partners or our OTT servcie Watch.Hockey. I can only urge everyone to register to the latter in order to follow - or discover - the intensity and skills of our sport and its athletes!

We need to be always alert for new trends. This is the case of e-sport. I'm glad that FIH recently launched its very first Hockey Manager mobile game. This is a good start and I'm sure we will get new hockey fans from the gaming community. But we have to continue exploring all e-opportunities which are coming our way. We are a modern and dynamic sport; e-gaming is a way to showcase this.

We need to promote sustainability in hockey. For example, the watering of pitches for the top hockey competitions has to stop! In a world where many people are struggling to access water, this simply is no longer acceptable. I'm glad that we've made big progress with our partners in the industry to find an alternative soon. Our goal is to play on a non-watered turf for the FIH Hockey5s World Cup in January 2024, the 2026 FIH Hockey Women's and Men's World Cups and the 2028 Olympic hockey tournaments.

If we manage to implement the above-mentioned actions - which are just a few - I see no reason why hockey's participation and fanbase would not grow. This shall then translate into an increase of our resources, that we will use to invest in… developing hockey. Hence why it is so crucial that we make the absolute most of our potential to grow!