The issue of Hockey 5s one day appearing on the Olympics programme to replace the traditional 11-a-side format saw conflicting views from the International Hockey Federation’s top brass at the weekend.
World hockey president Narinder Batra held on to his seat by the narrowest of margins on Saturday before being asked his views on the shortened format of the game and the FIH’s heavy promotion of Hockey 5s.
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Let’s face it. Getting Hockey 5s into the Olympics is an attempt at survival and not a whim.
I actually wish it was Hockey 7s. I think that would be much more exciting and sustainable. There is nothing more exciting than when a hockey game goes into overtime. I think it is the perfect number of players.
Also, you can play on the normal size pitch, no need to adjust field size!
Reducing pitch size is the crux of the matter. In hockey 5s, the pitch cost is reduced by 70%, maintenance costs by 70%, player accommodation and traveling costs by 60%.
These are big cost reduction. It also helps that hockey 5s retains almost the complete hockey essence(except penalty corners), unlike futsal for football(almost no headers or high balls).
Of course it helps that audiences at both Nanjing and Buenos Aires Youth Olympic loved the format.