The men’s FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Summer Games will now be hosted by Oman instead of Pakistan from January 15 to 21, the international hockey federation (FIH) announced last week.
The FIH took away the hosting rights from Pakistan last month citing the recent developments surrounding the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF). The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) suspended several PHF officials in August and ordered fresh elections.
Spain’s Valencia will host one of the two men’s qualifying tournaments while the other will be held in Oman’s Muscat instead of Lahore in Pakistan.
Each Paris 2024 hockey qualifying tournament will feature eight teams and the top three teams from each of these FIH qualifying tournaments will make the cut for the Paris 2024 Games. A total of 12 teams per gender will play at the Summer Games next year.
The seedings and teams for the Olympic qualifiers will be determined after the end of all the continental championships taking place in 2023.
The winners of the men’s hockey tournaments at the five continental championships qualify directly for Paris 2024.
The Netherlands won the EuroHockey Championship 2023 while Australia sealed their place at next year’s Olympics by winning the Oceania Cup. The winner of the Asian Games 2023 hockey tournament will get a direct berth. The African Hockey Road to Paris and the Pan American Games start later this month.
France have already qualified for next year’s Summer Games courtesy of being the host nation. The remaining six slots will be decided through the qualifying tournaments.
Valencia will also host one of the two women’s qualifying tournaments while China’s Changzhou will be the venue for the second. The format for women’s hockey qualifiers for Paris 2024 is the same as the men.
The Paris 2024 hockey competition will take place at Yves-du-Manoir stadium from July 27 to August 9, 2024.
