India to host 2023 Men's Hockey World Cup in January; Spain, Netherlands named co-hosts of women's showpiece event in 2022

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Friday announced India as the hosts for the 2023 Men's Hockey World Cup and Netherlands, Spain as co-hosts for the Women's event a year prior. The Men's World Cup will be played between 13-29 January and the Women's World Cup from 1-17 July, 2022. The eventual cities will be confirmed by the host nations at a later date.

India had played host to the 2018 Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar. Image: Hockey India

This is the fourth time that India have been picked to host a World Cup since its start in 1971. The previous editions were 1982 (Mumbai), 2010 (New Delhi) and 2018 (Bhubaneswar) where Belgium triumphed. India, however, have not won the quadrennial tournament since 1975.

The 2023 Men's World Cup will follow the same format as the 2018 edition which was played in Bhubaneswar. At the tournament, 16 teams were divided into four groups of four each. Thereafter, each team played the other once with the top placed nation going through to the quarter-finals. The second and third placed nations from each group went into crossover matches. Quarters onwards, it became a knockout format.

"We are all very delighted to have won the bid to host the 2023 Men's Hockey World Cup. When we had made the bid, we wanted to give our country another reason to celebrate 75 years of independence adding to that the fact that our last win was registered in 1975. And what better way to celebrate than to witness a pinnacle global event of our national sport on our soil," said Hockey India President Mohd. Mushtaque Ahmad in a statement.

"After having hosted the 14th edition of the Men's Hockey World Cup in 2018 which was recognized as one of the best hockey events ever, we were confident that we can host another Men's Hockey World Cup, and we are all very delighted on the prospects of hosting the top hockey-playing nations in India. We have the opportunity to use last year's experience to organise an even better Men's Hockey World Cup in 2023," he went on to add.

“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,” said FIH CEO Thierry Weil.

For the 2022 Women's World Cup, FIH announced the schedule as well. In the preliminary phase, two pools will be created to be played in Netherlands and two separate pools to be hosted by Spain. The two crossover matches and two quarters would be played in Netherlands and another set in Spain. The final phase, however, would be played in Spain which will include the semi-finals, third place fixture and the final.

As per the format for both events, the hosts qualify automatically. Further five places will go to the Continental champions and remaining 10 teams will qualify through a home-and-away play-off.