NEW DELHI: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Saturday invited India to join the Hockey Pro League that gets underway 2019.
CEO Jason McCraken threw open the doors of the league for India despite the nine-team line-up in both men and women being completed way back in July by including Spain and Belgium as respective replacements, the Hindu reports. India had earlier this year withdrew from the HPL citing lack of clarity and an apparent bias towards European sides.
On Saturday, however, McCraken, accompanied by FIH president Narinder Batra, said, “The FIH would be delighted to have India as part of the Pro League. The doors are open now but there are some challenges. There will be 144 games all over the world and we have to adjust the schedule. There is a process and not only India, other countries like Canada or Korea, can join the Pro League,” McCracken declared.
“I think in the future when the time is right, I’m sure India will be joining us because hockey is strong when India is there. We are always talking to Hockey India. We see good crowds here but when we see India playing we see a packed stadium and that’s what we want see all over the world,” he added. The six month league would in that case see a longer season, with the additional number of teams playing.
McCraken also outlined the new Hockey Series Open that would replace the current Hockey World League from next year and declared hockey to be safe with regards to its existence at the Olympics. “What we are witnessing is that the trend of old days where one or two teams dominate are gone. Hockey is in a great shape. Next year we have the Indoor World Cup, we have two World Cups, two Champions Trophies and the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina. In 2019, we see another transition, with the beginning of the Hockey Pro League and the replacement for this event which is the Hockey Series Open (starting 2018) and the Hockey Series Finals in 2019,” he said.
The HWL as a four-level tournament will be replaced by a two-level event. The HSO open to all nations in the world, from which winners will go through to three HSFs to be played in 2019. The top-two teams from each of them advance to the Qualifying event for the Olympics.
