LAUSANNE, Switzerland: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has received no less than eight bidding dossiers, from three different continents, to host the next edition of the FIH Men’s and/or Women’s World Cups.
India, which was among the six countries that presented bids to host the next edition of the hockey World Cup, had in February proposed conducting the event for either men or women in the January 13 to 29, 2023 window, which was also preferred by Australia and New Zealand.
However, Hockey India has dropped plans to bid for the women’s event.
Stacked up against India in the race to host the next edition of the Men’s World Cup are Belgium and Malaysia, both of whose preferred time window is 1-17 July 2022.
Bids received:
For the preferred time window 1-17 July 2022:
– Germany: Women’s World Cup
– Spain: Women’s World Cup
– Spain/Netherlands: Women’s World Cup
– Belgium: Men’s World Cup
– Malaysia: Men’s World Cup
For the preferred time window 13-29 January 2023:
– India: Men’s World Cup
– Malaysia: Women’s World Cup
– New Zealand: Women’s World Cup
FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: “It’s great to see that so many national associations and countries want to host our quadrennial flagship events. This is encouraging for the further growth of our sport.”
An FIH Task Force will meet on 6 November to thoroughly examine all bids and make a recommendation to the executive board (EB). The EB will make the final decision on both events’ hosts on 8 November during their next meeting here.
India have hosted the men’s World Cup thrice, the latest being last year in Bhubaneswar.
