New 'World League' in Hockey

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has announced a World League that is scheduled to begin in September after the London Olympics. The first edition of the league will conclude with the finals in February 2014 in India, which now also will be the qualification method for the World Cup and Olympics. FIH President – Leandro Negre and CEO – Kelly Fairweather, at a press conference during the qualifiers for the Olympic Games said that the event would be held in alternate years in time with the World Cup and the Olympics in which about 58 women and 80 men teams were keen to compete.

2014 onward, roughly 7 teams from the FIH World League, the host and 5 continental champions will play the Olympics and the World Cup. CEO Fairweather said that the first men’s final of the FIH World League will be held in February 2014 in India and the women’s in Argentina in 2013, December.

The competition is to be played in 4 rounds. The top eight ranked teams will get a bye into Round 3 – which has two tournaments of eight teams each, which includes the hosts. The teams ranked 9-16 (where India is placed), will enter directly into Round 2 where – four tournaments with six teams each including hosts will be played. The rest of the teams will play from Round 1, with only 12 advancing to the next round. The final round will be played between eight teams including the hosts out of which 6-7 will qualify for the World Cup or Olympics that year alongside five continental winners and the hosts.

The FIH CEO said that they were planning to sketch out a plan for its future programmes. He also added that a schedule till the 2014 World Cup had been planned and the calendar for 2014-2018 would be discussed in the next Congress, which would revolve around the main events – the Olympics and the World Cup. He said the aim was to make sure the game is played continuously, adding that there would be a Champions trophy every second year, for which the idea has been floated but not finalized on yet because of the issue of accommodation of tournaments like Asian Games, Sultan Azlan Shah and the Champions Challenge; but said that it was on their priority list to address the issue.