Lausanne: Poland and Spain will host the second edition of the FIH Hockey Nations Cup in 2024, with the winners joining the 2024-25 FIH Hockey Pro League season, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced here on Friday.
The city of Gniezno, Poland, will host the men’s event which will involve some of the best teams in the world: Poland, Korea, Malaysia, France, South Africa, Pakistan, Canada, Austria and -– as the team relegated from the 2022-23 FIH Hockey Pro League season — New Zealand.
Since, based on the FIH World Rankings, the Polish team had not qualified for this FIH Hockey Nations Cup, the tournament will exceptionally be played with 9 teams. It will run from May 31 to June 9, 2024.
Gniezno is no stranger to international tournaments as it hosted the Hockey Series Open in 2018 and the EuroHockey Championship II in 2021.
The women’s event will take place in Spain from June 3 to 9, 2024. The city will be announced at a later stage.
The impressive line-up includes Spain, Japan, Korea, Ireland, Chile, Canada, Italy and New Zealand.
The FIH Hockey Nations Cup was launched in 2021 to offer a top-level competition to the best-ranked teams not participating in the FIH Hockey Pro League and give the winning team the option to be promoted to the FIH Hockey Pro League the next season, precisely.
India (women) and South Africa (men) won the first edition of the FIH Hockey Nations Cup in 2022.
“On behalf of FIH, I’d like to extend our sincerest thanks to the Hockey Associations of Poland and Spain. We have two fantastic hosts for two magnificent tournaments! I’m looking forward to exciting matches in a wonderful atmosphere!,” FIH President Tayyab Ikram was quoted as saying in a release on Friday.
“I had the privilege to meet the Mayor of Gniezno, Mr Michał Powałowski, recently and was very impressed by the commitment of the city. I’d like to thank him personally”, the FIH President added.
–IANS
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