FIH :: FIH vow to review World Cup, Olympics qualifying system

The International Hockey Fe­­de­ration (FIH) will look at revie­wing the qualifying process for the World Cup and the Olympics.

Their president, Leandro Negre, said yesterday that he was not in favour of the present system where 18 teams are divided to go through three tournaments.

Only the continental champions and the hosts get an automatic berths.

Negre added that it would take some time before any changes could be made.

“But we must first look at the current system and study it in detail. It is not a good qualifying system with one team coming through from each of the three tournaments,” he said.

“I think the old system where there was one qualifying tournament for either the World Cup or the Olympics and having four or five qualifiers was the better option.”

Negre added that the costs of staging three qualifying tournaments was also very expensive and time consuming for the FIH.

“Countries may be able to host Olympic qualifiers with support from their Olympic councils. But for the World Cup, they will have to search for their own sponsors,” he said.

The current system was adopted after the 2006 World Cup qualifying tournament hosted by China.

The three qualifying tournaments for next year’s Finals in India will be held in November in Lille (France), Auckland (New Zealand) and Dubai (UAE).

Negre added that the system aimed at helping smaller teams to qualify failed to achieve its objective when top teams ended up having to play in qualifying tournaments.

He said that Germany were the good example when they played in the 2008 Olympic qualifying tournament after failing to gain an automatic berth in Europe. They went on to win the gold medal in the Beijing Games.

Negre added: “Argentina are also a top team and they failed in the Pan American Games last month. Now they will play in a qualifying tournament. How does this help the smaller teams?”