World Cup: Malaysian proposal likely to find favour

By Our Hockey Correspondent

EDINBURGH, JULY 21. Opinion in the International Hockey Federation (FIH) seems to be crystallising in favour of two pools of eight teams for the next edition of the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur instead of the advertised four pools of four teams each for the 16. This is the first time that the FIH is experimenting with a collection of 16 teams for the World Cup instead of the usual 12.

The FIH's move to increase the number of teams to 16 is part of its globalisation effort. The number of countries in the FIH rolls crossed the 100 mark long ago, and many believe it is time more representation is given to constituent units in a world level competition. Such an exercise is not easy for the Olympics because that event is organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and not by the FIH.

In fact, the FIH conducted the recent Junior World Cup in Buenos Aires in four-four format, and conducted the women's event in the last Olympics in a different pattern. But the pros and cons of the 16-team format was the subject of a debate during the last meeting of the FIH Competitions Committee in Brussels before the elections in April.

The Executive Board (EB) which has been meeting here since last Friday is engaged on an intense debate over the format for the next World Cup, consequent to a request from the Malaysian Hockey Federation to give a second leg to the 4-4 pool system. What the Malaysians will be happy to entertain is a format including two pools of eight teams. This means each outfit will have to play seven matches before the knock-out stage and the classification matches. In effect, each team may have to play nine matches instead of the seven in the 12-team format. Which again will mean extending the World Cup by a few days if the teams have to get adequate recovery time between matches.

The argument of the host country, in this case Malaysia, is that in a four-team pool, the chances of teams recovering from a shock defeat is slim and that in case the host fails to qualify for stage two, the spectator response would drop abysmally affecting the interest of the sponsor.

It is this aspect that might force the Board to accept the suggestion of the Malaysian Hockey Federation.

Interestingly, last March, the FIH agreed to advance the dates for the World Cup on a request from the Malaysian Hockey Federation which said the clash of dates with the F-1 racing would materially affect the publicity for the hockey event.

Malaysia's second suggestion is also very likely to get the nod if the mood of the members here at the EB is any indication. If the EB thus agrees for a change in format, then the competition will be stretched to two weeks.

The EB is reported to have allotted the men's Champions Trophy to Cologne (Germany) and the women's edition to Macau (under the supervision of China). The event was to be held in Belgium next year but that country withdrew the bid admitting failure to rope in a sponsor.

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