LAUSANNE: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has revealed the full schedule for the inaugural season of the Hockey Pro League which begins on 19 January 2019.
152 matches have been scheduled between January and June across the world as part of this new game-changing competition in which the game’s economic heavyweight India is conspicuously absent.
Nine women’s and nine men’s teams will be competing for the Hockey Pro League title, playing eight home and eight away matches throughout the first six months of every year. The top four teams will then compete to determine the winner in a Grand Final later in June.
Spain men will get things underway as they host Rio 2016 and EuroHockey Championship silver medallists Belgium in the opening match of the Hockey Pro League.
A busy schedule then follows, with the majority of early matches played in the southern hemisphere.
As one of the early season highlights, Argentina women will be anticipating the arrival of reigning Hockey World Cup and World League champions Netherlands as the EuroHockey title winners head south to take on Las Leonas on 24 February.
Shortly afterwards the spotlight turns to Australia as their men and women challenge Oceania rivals New Zealand for continental bragging rights over the Saint Patrick’s Day weekend – 17 March. The teams return matches then take place in New Zealand on Anzac Day – 25 April.
Another continental duel will be Argentina women’s visit to the USA. The Pan American rivals, who have taken wins against each other in recent months, go head to head on 12 May.
The teams then follow the summer by returning to the northern hemisphere and compete to finish in the top four to guarantee qualification for the Grand Final.
Speaking about this announcement, FIH president Narinder Batra said: “We’re delighted to publish this schedule as the world can now visualise the scale of this new global home and away league. Organising such a complex timetable involving a number of stakeholders took some time but it was refreshing to witness to amount of collaborative working throughout the process by both participating teams and broadcasters.”
Batra continued: “This announcement means that fans can now lock dates into their diary to ensure they don’t miss any of the world’s top nations visiting their home turf. It also allows both our participating nations and FIH to really push on with the development of this competition as we look to finalise broadcast and commercial partnerships across the world over the coming months ahead of next January’s launch.”
Note that the schedule provided is subject to change depending on changes requested by broadcasters and participating teams.
Grand Final: 144 matches will take place as part of the League stage. A further eight matches will then take place at the Grand Final. This will take place in the Netherlands in June 2019 on dates yet to be confirmed. FIH will issue a press release once dates and a venue have been approved.
