Odisha’s Rourkela was on Tuesday added because the second Indian venue, apart from Bhubaneswar, for the upcoming FIH Professional League season starting in October with the matches to be held on the stadium constructed to host the lads’s World Cup in January.
A model new stadium has been in-built Rourkela to host a few of the matches of the FIH males’s World Cup to be held from January 13 to 29.
Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Stadium, which is able to host many of the matches of the World Cup, is the opposite Indian venue which can even stage FIH Professional League video games.
Different venues which is able to host matches of the FIH Professional League from October 28, 2022 to July 5, 2023 are Newcastle and Hobart in Australia, Mendoza and Santiago del Estero in Argentina, Antwerp (Belgium), London, Eindhoven and Amsterdam within the Netherlands, and Christchurch and Wellington in New Zealand.
“As already introduced in March, a brand new schedule - primarily based on a sequence of ‘mini-tournaments’ the place a number of groups will collect in a single venue to play two matches in opposition to one another - will come into drive for this new Professional League season,” the FIH stated in a press release.
“This format could have a significant optimistic influence on gamers’ welfare and the setting, because of a considerable discount within the quantity of journey wanted for every group and the officers. One other nice benefit of this revised format is that it will increase the variety of dates accessible for athletes to compete of their home leagues and membership competitions,” the assertion additional learn.
The FIH additionally stated that it's going to implement the system of promotion and relegation from the upcoming season of Professional League.
Whereas the group ending final might be relegated as standard, the facet successful the newly-added 2022 FIH Nations Cup might be promoted to the Professional League season in 2023.
“The combination of the promotion-relegation precept will considerably add to the joy round Professional League. Additionally, the brand new format is helpful to everybody, athletes, Nationwide Associations, golf equipment and followers particularly,” FIH CEO Thierry Weil stated.
“We’re glad to welcome some new venues for this season; that is nice for the expansion of our sport! We’re very a lot trying ahead to the fourth version of the FIH Hockey Professional League!” he added.
