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All you need to know about the FIH Hockey World Cup

Hockey World Cup
Ireland Ladies team at the 2018 Hockey World Cup

Field Hockey has been one of the more popular sports on PledgeSports over the years, to date we have helped teams from all over the world raise nearly 80K.

With the participation of India and Pakistan Hockey is now one of the most watched and most played sports in the world. So let’s find out a little more about the all important World Cup tournament.

Alongside the Olympics, the Hockey World Cup is biggest prize and the most cherished competition in the game. The World cup is held every four years where the world’s greatest teams play each other. Professional Hockey players are some of the fittest athletes in sport and hockey is also is one of the toughest, most skilful and the fastest sports there is, so the World Cup is always a super thrilling event.

History of the Hockey World Cup

The Men’s Hockey World Cup was started by the FIH (International Hockey Federation) back in 1971. It’s held every four years, bridging the four years between the Summer Olympics. The last one was in 2018 and next one will be 2022.

The Women’s Hockey World Cup has been held since 1974 and was organised by the International Federation of Women’s Hockey Associations (IFWHA) until 1981, when the governing bodies merged into the current International Hockey Federation in 1982.

The sport of Hockey can be dated all the way back to ancient Greece in 600BC, here is the detailed – History of Hockey

Format

Like every major sporting event, it starts with a qualification stage. Then the 16 top teams are broke up into four pools of four teams based on world rankings. The teams play a round robin tournament then the top two teams in each pool play in the semifinals for a place in the final. The bottom two teams in the semifinals have a third place playoff. The rest of the teams have playoffs to determine their final positions. If they are third or fourth in their pool, they play for fifth place; if they are fifth or sixth in their pool, they play for ninth place.

Mens Winners and Most Successful Teams

Europe have been the most successful continent so far with 6 world cup titles – Belgium won in 2018, Germany have 2 titles and Netherlands 3. Followed by Asia – India have one title but Pakistan have 5, making them the most successful country in the Hockey World Cup.

Mens World Cup Winners

Year Winner Runner up

2018 Belgium Netherlands

2014 Australia Netherlands

2010 Australia Germany

2006 Germany Australia

2002 Germany Australia

1998 Netherlands Spain

1994 Pakistan Netherlands

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Women’s – Most Successful teams and Winners

Hockey World Cup

Of the fourteen tournaments held so far, only four teams have won the event!  The Netherlands are by far the most successful women’s team, they have now won the title eight times and are runner up 4 times.  Argentina, Germany and Australia are joint second best teams, having each won the title twice each.

Year / Winner / Runner up

2022 / Netherlands / Germany

2018 / Netherlands / Ireland

2014 / Netherlands / Australia

2010 / Argentina / Netherlands

2006 / Netherlands /Australia

2002 / Argentina / Netherlands

1998 / Australia / Netherlands

1994 / Australia / Argentina

2022 Hockey World Cup

The Hockey World Cup was held 1st to 17 th July  at the Estadi Olímpic de Terrassa in Terrassa, Spain and at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, the Netherlands.

The Defending champions – Netherlands won the tournament for a record 9th time!  They defeated Argentina 3–1 in the final.  Australia came 3rd place, by defeating Germany 2–1 to claim their first World Cup medal.

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