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FIH to capitalise on Hockey 5s format
Argentina women claimed a first gold PIC: Hockey Argentina
By The Hockey Paper
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) believes it can capitalise on the success of Hockey 5s at the Youth Olympics.
Argentina women and Malaysia men took gold last week in Buenos Aires in a tournament which saw packed crowds, as well as minor nations take part.
“After the huge success of the Hockey5s, we will be reviewing all opportunities for this format and all age groups,” Jon Wyatt, FIH sport and development director, told The Hockey Paper.
Argentina has looked into hosting an under-18 Hockey 5s World Cup three years ago, but the FIH hasn’t ruled out a global tournament at junior level to further grow the game.
Wyatt added: “There are no current proposals on the table, but we are certainly looking to capitalise on the success to attract new players to the sport across all formats.
“A successful shorter format has been demonstrated to be very positive across many sports and hockey is no different to this.”
“The hugely successful Indoor World Cup in Berlin earlier this year, and the very popular Hockey 5s tournament this month, have demonstrated that hockey has very attractive and exciting shorter formats that are engaging new players and fans around the world.”
Several top nations didn’t enter qualifying for the Youth Olympics, including Holland, Great Britain and Germany.
FIH hope Hockey 5s will attract new audience PIC: Buenos Aires 2018
Great Britain officials told The Hockey Paper that their decision was based on “finite resources at our disposal” but would look at participating in Hockey 5s in the future.
Wyatt said: “We hope that as many nations as possible choose to participate in as many different formats of hockey as possible, but also appreciate that every nation has different resources and priorities.
“Having traditional hockey nations participating in these formats is obviously great, but it is also exciting that newer hockey nations are succeeding in these new formats providing hockey with the chance to grow quickly in less well developed hockey nations.”
