New Indian Express: FIH to Discontinue Champions Trophy

By Swarooop Swaminathan

IPOH: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is in the middle of radically altering the sport’s international calendar. The Champions Trophy, one of the two blue riband FIH events outside the Olympics, will be axed after the 2018 edition.

That isn’t the only FIH event that is on the chopping block. The Hockey World League (HWL) Semifinals and HWL Final too will be culled. These changes, announced by Leandro Negre, FIH president, on Friday, is because the sport’s governing body wants to bring in a ‘new global league’ from 2019.

“We’ll have a World League 1 and World League 2, and depending on the cycle, we’ll channel teams to a standalone Olympic qualifier or World Cup qualifier,” he said. “There’ll also be confirmation soon on the fact that there will be no Champions Trophy after 2018.”

Normally, the top teams would expect to play in the new Global Hockey League, a tourney that will take up four months of the calendar, but there are criteria in place to ensure no teams loses focus after one year. Apart from having a good ranking and venues that satisfy FIH, there is also a financial raider that countries will have to fulfil. “It’s a new initiative in our strategy, and teams who meet the above-mentioned criteria will only qualify.”

Seven teams will play in the inaugural edition, with two more teams added to the 2021 meet. Promotion and relegation will be introduced from 2023 onwards.

FIH is also planning to ensure that there is at least one representative from every confederation for all future Olympics. The South African team qualified this year, but their national association pulled them out because the team did not meet their in-house qualifying criteria.

“Till now, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) has the final say. So, from Tokyo 2020, we’ll be making one place available to any confederation team ranked in the top 20.”