Olympic Hockey: Who plays whom in qualifier will be known on September 9

Excitement is mounting as the date of draws for Olympic Qualifiers comes closer. The International Hockey Federation has fixed September 9 as the date of draws and also released a list of teams that have been entered into the draw. The only change may be necessitated by the outcome of the Oceania Cup involving Australia-New Zealand games, both in men and women sections. The winners of the Oceania Cup will qualify directly for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and will automatically go out of the Olympic qualifiers list.The draw to determine the matches of the upcoming FIH Hockey Olympic qualifiers will be held on 9 September at 1 pm CET at the headquarters of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in Lausanne, Switzerland. It will be conducted by FIH CEO Thierry Weil and streamed live on the FIH Facebook page. 14 Men’s and 14 Women’s teams will be involved in this draw. The FIH Hockey Olympic qualifiers will each feature two nations playing two back-to-back matches, with nations drawn to play each other based on their rankings at the end of the last 2018 / 2019 Continental Championship, namely the Oceania Cup (8 September). The matches will be hosted by the higher-ranked of the two competing nations. The list of qualified teams* for the FIH Hockey Olympic qualifiers, in their current ranking order**, is as follows: Men Host teams: (1) Australia (2) Netherlands (3) India (4) Germany (5) Great Britain (6) Spain (7) New Zealand (8) Canada Away teams: (9) Malaysia (10) France (11) Ireland (12) Korea (13) Pakistan (14) Austria (15)Egypt Women Host teams: (1) Australia (2) Germany (3) Great Britain (4) Spain (5) New Zealand (6) Ireland (7) India (8) China Away teams: (9) Korea (10) Belgium (11) USA (12) Canada (13) Italy (14) Chile (15) Russia *since either Australia or New Zealand will qualify directly to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 as winners of the Oceania Cup, the group of “host teams” will be reduced to seven teams on 8 September ** the ranking order indicated above might change on 8 September depending on the results of the Oceania Cup FIH will confirm all the teams involved in the draw, as well as their final ranking order, on 8 September after the publication of the FIH World Rankings, following the completion of the Oceania Cup. The draw will be done as follows:

• The teams ranked 1^st, 2^nd and 3rd will be drawn at random to play at home against one of the teams ranked 12th, 13th or 14^th. For example, the team ranked 1^st will play at home one of the teams ranked 12th, 13th or 14^th, as determined by the draw
• The teams ranked 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th will be drawn at random to play at home against one of the teams ranked 8th, 9th, 10th or 11^th

The FIH Hockey Olympic qualifiers are scheduled for 25-27 October and 1-3 November 2019. The exact match schedule and venues will be confirmed after the draw on 9 September. The following teams have already qualified for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 as winners of their respective Continental Championship: Argentina (Men and Women), South Africa (Men and Women), Belgium (Men) and Netherlands (Women). They will be joined by the winners of the Oceania Cup – Men and Women - which will take place in Rockhampton, Australia (5-8 September). Japan (Men and Women) won their Continental Championship in 2018 and were already qualified as hosts. Also Read: India vs West Indies 2nd Test 2019: Do-or-Die for Windies in Test series It is worth noting that the final participation in the Olympic Games for any team must be approved and confirmed beforehand by their respective National Olympic Committee. The 2020 Olympic hockey tournaments will be staged in Japan’s capital city from July 25 to August 7, 2020,  and involve 12 men and 12 women teams. -PTC News