Hockey World Cup

The Hockey World Championship or The Hockey World Cup is a field hockey competition which is organized by FIH (International Hockey Federation). This tournament is held every four years and the first world cup was held in 1971. Pakistan’s Air Marshal Nur Khan first conceived this tournament. The idea was proposed to Patrick Rowley (FIH and World Hockey Magazine) and the FIH approved and adopted th e idea on 26th October, 1969 and 12th April, 1970. They also decided that the inaugural cup would be held in Pakistan. However due to various political issues (severe political climate between India and Pakistan), the world cup was prevented from being played in Pakistan at that time. FIH moved the tournament venue to Barcelona, Spain as it was considered a peaceful and neutral European site.

The Women’s Hockey World Cup was organized from 1974 till 1981 by IFWHA (International Federation of Women’s Hockey Association) and after 81, the governing body merged into the current FIH. The history of hockey world cup has been dominated by five countries. Pakistan is the most successful of them all as they have won the cup four times.

Netherlands and Germany have won the world cup thrice and twice respectively. Australia and India have won the cup once. 2006’s World Cup was held in Germany from 6th September – 17th September. Germany won the cup by defeating Australia in the final. FIH decided to allot the next world cup in India in 2010 (currently going on in India).

The FIH hasn’t set any requirements on the number of teams participating in the tournament. The smallest World Cup in 1971 included 10 countries. The largest world cup in 2002 included sixteen countries. The first three cups were organized in every two years. The 1978 world cup was the first and only one to be held after three years and since 1982, world cup has been organized after every four years which bridges the gap between Summer Olympics.

The hockey world cup involves a qualification round and the final tournament. The qualification stage involves dividing the teams into two (or sometimes more) pools which compete for a place in the final tournament. The top two teams automatically qualify and the playoffs decide the rest of the places. The final tournament occurs between the qualified teams and the continental champion. A round robin tournament is played after dividing the teams once more into pools. The top two teams play for place in the final and the third and fourth ranked teams play for third position.