New Delhi, Nov 8 (IANS): The 2023 men's hockey World Cup will be held in India, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) said on Friday. This will be the second consecutive time that India will be hosting the tournament and the fourth time overall. India had hosted the World Cup in 1982 and 2010 before 2018.
The FIH release also stated that the 2022 women's hockey World Cup will be hosted jointly by Spain and the Netherlands.
"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," FIH CEO Thierry Weil is quoted as saying in the governing body's release.
"We will work closely with the Local organising 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. 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.
The men's World Cup is slated to be held from January 13 to 29, 2023 while the women's World Cup will be held from July 1-17, 2022.