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The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has announced a new portfolio of events that, from 2019, will completely change the landscape of international hockey.

Designed to provide a regular calendar of ‘must‐see’ events played in packed stadia across the world throughout the year, a new annual global home and away league involving the world’s leading hockey nations will complement the Hockey World Cup and Olympic Games tournaments.

This system will see international teams play against opponents once at home and once away each year in this league. Following several months of competition, the top ranked teams will then qualify for a stand-alone grand finale tournament which will determine the winners of the competition. This will form part of a three tier system, identical for both the men’s and women’s game.

Teams participating in this new home and away league will be chosen based on a clearly defined set of qualification criteria designed to maintain the quality of the league and high standard events. These have been developed around the three main objectives of the new event portfolio - to generate a massive change in TV and media coverage for hockey; create big, bold, packed and loud events and make a step change to increase future revenues.

For those nations not in the home and away league, the next tier of competition will remain similar to the current Hockey World League Round 1 and 2 events, played over two year cycles. This format will still give teams the chance to go all the way to the World Cup or Olympics. Even the smallest hockey-playing nations have the opportunity to write their own chapter in hockey’s history books as they progress throughout the rounds of competition into these flagship events.

While Hockey World Cup qualification will remain similar to the current system, Olympic qualification will change, pending approval of the International Olympic Committee’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualification criteria.

The introduction of this new portfolio of events means that there will no longer be Hockey World League Semi-Finals and Finals, while the last Hockey Champions Trophies will take place in 2018.

The proposals were approved by the FIH Executive Board in Lausanne, Switzerland earlier this month and followed more than 18 months of consultation, research and development between a number of stakeholders, overseen by a specially formed working group for this project.

This included correspondence with more than 700 individuals, including: athletes; National Associations; Continental Federations; the International Olympic Committee; Association of Summer Olympic International Federations; major broadcasters; individuals at continental federation congresses; officials and umpires; FIH Committee and Panel members and FIH staff.

In addition to this, internationally renowned integrated audit, tax, consulting and financial advisor Deloitte provided extensive support in developing the financial modelling for the new portfolio of events.

It is predicted that the increased commercial potential of implementing the new structure will generate considerably more value for the sport, which will filter down into all levels, including new and developing hockey nations, from elite to grassroots level.

Commenting on the new program, FIH Chief Executive Kelly Fairweather stated “this is a historic decision for the sport of hockey ... moving from a tournament based format to a home and away league will considerably increase the value of our sport.

“Fans will be exposed to more international hockey throughout the year, with many more home matches for them to enjoy. With more fans packing out the stands, we expect these events to be bigger, bolder packed and loud, creating electric atmospheres for our athletes to perform in.

This, along with tweaks to the tiers below, will have a significant impact on the sport across all levels, safeguarding its future for many years to come.”

FIH President, Leandro Negre added “when we launched our strategy 18 months ago we knew that drastic measures were required to revolutionise the sport.

“A lot of hard work has already been undertaken, but this is only the start. We need the hockey family to embrace this change now to ensure we reach our 10-year aim of making hockey a global game that inspires the next generation. This will certainly be a monumental step for the sport as we take it to the next level.”

Hockey Australia Chief Executive Cam Vale has also welcomed the changes, concluding “the new structure for international hockey competition represents a step change in how we’re thinking about the sport on a truly global scale.

“Ultimately, it will make hockey more accessible with more world class hockey in Australia, more often. It will also mean more hockey on TV, increasing the visibility of the sport to consumers and commercial partners.

“We recognise that we need to put fans at the heart of everything we do and that our broadcast partners play a huge part in that.”

Click here to find out more about the FIH’s 10-year strategy.

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