Hockey News

FIELD HOCKEY The origin of field hockey can be traced to many early civilizations, from the Aztecs to the Egyptians, to others. But the modern game which we see today was developed in the British Isles in the 1800s. The early games of hockey were inspired by football, hence the many similarities between the two sports. The Hockey Association was formed by seven clubs in 1875, which started formally drawing up rules for the game, loosely based on the Football Association rules. Field hockey was introduced in the United States in the early 1900s, while their neighbours, Canada, were already playing ice hockey. The current governing body, Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH) was formed after it was excluded from the 1924 Paris games. The FIH now has five continental associations and 137 National Associations under it. The modern game of hockey is played on a 100 x 60 yard field. The sport has transitioned from being played on grass pitches to now synthetic pitches. Two teams of eleven each contest in two halves of 30 minutes each. The team consists of attackers, midfielders, defenders, and a goalkeeper. The keeper is the only player allowed to use his or her feet. The teams have to strike the ball from within the opposition’s semi-circle without lifting the ball for a goal to stand. The most prestigious prize in the sport is the Hockey World cup. The World Cup is held once every four years. The FIH does not have a hard limit on the number of teams participating, with the smallest World Cup having just 10 teams in 1971 and the largest tournament having 16 competitors. The World Cup spots are determined by a qualification phase. Participating teams are divided into two pools, with the top two teams getting automatic qualifications and the rest of the berths decided by playoffs. The main tournament progression is also based on qualifying from two pools, where teams are divided based on their current world rankings, with the top two teams from each pool playing each other in the semi-finals pool. The bottom two from the semi-finals pool contest a third-place final with the top two moving to the final. Pakistan is the most successful team with four wins to their name, followed by the Netherlands and Australia at three each. India won their only Hockey World Cup title in 1975, beating Pakistan 2-1 in the final. The FIH is responsible for the ranking systems for both men’s and women’s national teams. The rankings, introduced in 2003 are based on the results of matches played by the teams in the last four years, with the fourth (most recent) year carrying the most weightage. The FIH also gives out Player of the Year awards for both men and women, with the ‘Young’ category introduced for players under 21 years of age.