Hockey India League: Field goal to be counted as 'TWO' goals

This change in rule will see the strikers to be in demand at the auctions this week

There is a new rule, which is to be introduced in the upcoming edition of the Hockey World League (HIL) where a ‘field’ goal will be counted as ‘two’ goals instead of one. This variation in the rule is termed as ‘revolutionary’ by some of the franchise owners. The new goal-scoring system is approved by the FIH Competitions Committee and Rules Committee and therefore can be tested at the International stage as well in the near future.

According to the new rule, the weightage for field goals will be double compared to the goals scored from penalty corners which means while a successfully converted short corner will still count as one goal, a field goal will be considered as ‘two’.

This first of a kind of kind scoring guideline has been put into place to encourage the players to be more skillful and to look for more field goals other than just be looking for a foot inside the circle and score via a short corner. Last season, top 5 goal scorers were drag-flickers and to change the general perception that is the importance given to corners has diminished the value of a field goal.

“The system will surely enhance players’ skills and mentality”

Mr. Narinder Batra, Chairman, Hockey India League, spoke at the press conference announcing the change in rules, "Penalty Corners give undue advantage to those teams which have penalty corner specialists. The teams also fight to earn penalty corners rather than scoring goals through field penetration. The new system will encourage teams and players to play to score goals instead of looking for penalties. The system will surely enhance players’ skills and mentality of playing good hockey” as Hockey India League reports.

The goals scored via a penalty stroke are also to be counted as double or ‘two’ goals in order to prevent the players from indulging in rough tackles and to maintain discipline among the players.

The other change in the rules and regulations is that a HIL franchise will have a squad of 20 players, out of whom 12 players should be from Indian origin whereas the rest 8 should be foreign players as well as all the players of 20-member squad should be mentioned in the Match Sheet and must be present at their respective Team’s dug-out during the HIL matches. The teams will also be able to make immediate replacements by selecting a player from the HIL Reserve List 2016.

Hockey India League 2015 auction is scheduled for 17th September wherein 135 Indian and 141 Foreign Players will go under the hammer. All the teams were given the option for retaining their 3 Indian and 3 Foreign players at the end of 2015 HIL season.

Event	Goals Awarded
For every Field Goal and Penalty Stroke Goal scored in a match other than resulting from a Penalty Corner	2
For every goal scored from a Penalty Stroke resulting from a Penalty Corner where a goal being scored is prevented by a deliberate foul	2
For every Penalty Corner scored in a match	1
For every goal scored from a Penalty Stroke resulting from a Penalty Corner (where a goal being scored is prevented as a result of the ball hitting a foot or body)	1
In a shoot-out competition a goal from a direct Shoot-out and a Penalty Stroke	1