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Paris 2024 Olympic hockey qualifier matches set for home and away
GB celebrate during the Tokyo 2020 qualifiers PIC: WORLDSPORTPICS/WILL PALMER
The Olympic qualifiers for Paris 2024 look set to be played on a home and away format.
Seven play-offs over two legs were played for Tokyo 2020 places, with the top-ranked teams having home advantage.
But the FIH want to make it more even for the next Olympics, by giving the lower-ranked teams some advantage.
Insidethegames reported that ties would also take place in March, rather than October-November, giving time for nations to sell tickets.
The home and away format means that some nations may not see commercial value in the pop-up pitches which was for Ireland women’s matches.
It is obvious that Big Stadium Hockey has a place in the sport and so it will be interesting to see if nations will still look into options of bringing other matches to the venue around the qualifiers.
The two-legged, one-off matches for the 2020 Olympics proved popular. There were notable crowds in Vancouver for the Canada v Ireland men’s qualifier, while Hockey Ireland employed the pop-up pitch for their women’s matches against Canada.
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