Multiple venues, eight teams to boost Champions Trophy hockey

V Narayan Swamy

BANGALORE: Eight teams in next year’s Champions Trophy hockey tournament in India and multiple venues are the latest among International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) experiments to get the game’s popularity up by a few notches.

India has been FIH’s favourite stopover of late and it was no surprise when the president of the world body Leandro Negre told TOI that the eight-team format was created to accommodate the sub-continental giants.

India get an automatic entry as hosts for the 2011 edition while Pakistan (Asiad winners) and South Korea (ranked sixth in the world) find their way in as wild card entries. “Let us admit, without India hockey’s future is bleak,” Negre had told TOI some time back. “We need their presence to cater to a wider audience across the world. We are looking at maximising revenues from television and live audience. We need to have Pakistan too in the picture as the Asian style of hockey will be on display.”

While eight teams instead of the customary six is as an expected move – the FIH had done it twice before in 1987 (Amstelveen) and 2007 ( Kuala Lumpur) – Negre’s idea of choosing multiple venues comes as a whiff of fresh air.

“The eight teams will be divided into two groups of four. Two cities in Punjab, one of them may be Chandigarh, will host each of the groups. The top two from each group will be clubbed together for a final round-robin league in New Delhi. We aren’t looking at increasing the number of days or matches at this point in time. On the other hand, a round-robin league of eight teams would mean 28 matches in the first phase, which is 10 more than what the six-team format offers,” he said.

Hockey India officials said clarity would emerge after a meeting next year with FIH.