In order to engage with as many fans as possible and to raise excitement about the FIH Hockey Pro League, the iconic men’s and women’s Trophies will be embarking on their international travels, starting with a celebratory launch during the party atmosphere at the Copa del Rey in Terrassa in Spain.
Season 2 of the FIH Hockey Pro League, the annual global League that features the world’s best international men’s and women’s teams facing off against one another between January and June begins after Christmas.
The first edition of the ground-breaking competition took place in 2019 and featured some great hockey moments, with fans embracing the home games by turning out in their thousands to watch the host nations testing themselves against the finest international teams and players on the planet.
The growing audiences in the stadiums, TV and streaming via FIH.live were not to be disappointed, as the six-month competition allowed field hockey to showcase itself like never before. Shock results, superb team performances and superb individual achievements became part of the weekly Pro League experience, with the speed, skill and athleticism of the players being clear to all who watched. In the end it was the Netherlands women and Australia men who emerged as inaugural FIH Hockey Pro League champions,credit to them and the titles they will be determined to successfully defend in the Olympic year of 2020.
While understandably delighted with so many aspects of the first edition, FIH are not simply standing still. The 2020 edition of the FIH Hockey Pro League sees the introduction of a new match schedule, splitting home and away matches over two consecutive seasons to create a series of ‘double headers’ throughout the competition. This is an important move in terms of player welfare, significantly reducing travel fatigue and environmental impact by cutting the number of flights by half, which in turn substantially lowers accommodation and travel costs for the competing teams.
The FIH Hockey Pro League is the annual global League involving hockey’s best national teams in the world, Men and Women.
• The best team of the season – having accumulated the highest number of points at the end of the League – is crowned Champion and receives the FIH Hockey Pro League Trophy.
• The FIH Hockey Pro League enables fans to go and see their favorite team play 8 games at home against the elite of international hockey, something which happens rather rarely in hockey where most international competition games are held through tournaments played in just one country.
• The competition takes place in the first half of the year. Its first edition was played in 2019. Australia (Men) and The Netherlands (Women) were the inaugural Champions.
As well as the new match schedule, we are delighted to be able to witness another powerhouse of international hockey, India men joining the competition. The eight-times Olympic champions will play their home matches at the iconic Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, the 15,000-capacity stadium that so wonderfully staged the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup in 2018.
- Each team in the League will play all of the other teams in the League twice in a Season. Based on a 9 team League this means that each team plays 16 matches in a Season.
b. In the event of a Match being drawn, a shoot-out competition will be played in accordance with Appendix 2. The winner of the shoot-out competition will be awarded one bonus point.
c. The following points will be awarded for each Match : i. three (3) points to the winner in normal time; ii. one (1) point to the winner of a shoot-out following a draw plus one (1) bonus point, making a total of two (2) points. iii. one (1) point to the loser of the shootout, in the event of a draw; iv. no points to the loser of a match in normal time.
d. During the Season, teams will be ranked by the points gained up to that point in time. In the case of two or more teams having an equal number of points, they will be ranked according to Regulations 4.2 e – k below.
e. If at any point of time during the Season two or more teams with the same number of points for any place in the League will be ranked according to their respective number of Matches won.