New hockey series to qualify for Olympics

MUMBAI: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has launched a new two-tier competition, Hockey Series, which will provide a qualification route to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and World Cups.

For India, which is not part of the Hockey Pro League beginning next year, this will be the route to Olympic qualification if they fail to defend their Asian Games title.

A minimum of 15 nations will qualify from the Hockey Series Open for one of three Hockey Series Finals where they will meet the top nine nations in the world rankings, not playing in the Pro League.

Each HSF will be a eight- team event at three venues between May and June 2019. The top two nations from each HSF will then be guaranteed berths in the Olympic qualification events. They will be joined by four nations from the Hockey Pro League and the two highest placed nations in the FIH Hero world rankings (at the end of the 2019 Continental Championships), not already qualified via the HSF or Pro League.

The 12 men’s and 12 women’s nations will compete for a total of six spots in the Olympic Games, with the winners joining hosts Japan and the five continental champions who automatically qualify for Tokyo 2020.

The six qualification events will each feature two nations playing two back-to-back matches, with nations drawn to play each other based on rankings. The nation that scores the highest aggregate score over the two matches will qualify.