Mumbai: On the last meeting of the year, the executive board of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has decided to select India as host country for the 2023 FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup which will take place from 13 to 29 January 2023.
The FIH has also declared Spain and Netherlands as co-host for the 2022 FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup which will take place from 1-17 July 2022.
FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: “FIH has received excellent bids to host these prestigious events. It was, therefore, a difficult choice to make. Since the primary mission of FIH is to grow the sport worldwide - which of course requires to make investments -, the income-generation potential of each bid has played an important role in the decision.â€
Commenting on the organization of the FIH Hockey World Cups, he added: “We will work closely with the Local Organizing Committees on the sustainability and legacy aspects of these events.â€
The Executive Board also approved the qualification process for both events:
• The hosts will qualify automatically
• The winners of the Continental Championships will qualify directly (5 teams)
• The remaining 10 teams will qualify through a home-and-away play-off; the 20 teams involved in these qualifiers will be determined by Continental quotas, based on the FIH World Rankings at the end of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the finishing positions of teams in the Continental Championships
