India are set to host the men’s Hockey World Cup for the fourth time and the second successive edition after the 2018 tournament was played in Bhubaneshwar in November-December 2018.

On the occasion of its last meeting of the year in Lausanne, the Executive Board of the International Hockey Federation has selected India to host the 2023 FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup (13-29 January 2023) and Spain and the Netherlands to co-host the 2022 FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup (1-17 July 2022).

The venues will be announced by the host nations, the federation informed in the press release.

The competition format of the 2023 FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup will be the same as in 2018, which received an overwhelming response at the Kalinga Stadium in Odisha.

India was among the three nations who have presented their bids to host the next edition of the men’s World cup. India, who have hosted the men’s World Cup thrice before, will now host back-to-back tournaments. Belgium and Malaysia were the other two nations who have also sent their bidding dossier to conduct the men’s event.

The schedule of the 2022 FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup will be as follows:

Preliminary Phase:

- 2 Preliminary phase pools in the Netherlands (including the Dutch team)
- 2 Preliminary phase pools in Spain (including the Spanish team)

Quarter-Finals:

- 2 crossover matches and 2 quarter-finals in the Netherlands
- 2 crossover matches and 2 quarter-finals in Spain

Final phase in Spain:

- Semi-finals
- Match for 3rd place
- Final

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.”

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.”

The Executive Board also approved the qualification process for both events:

  • The hosts will qualify automatically (1 team)
  • 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