International hockey at the top level will continue to be 11-a-side and the game would be encouraged to be played on all kinds of surfaces at the grassroots to bring more nations into the fold.
The decisions, among others, were taken at the 46th FIH Congress here on Saturday, the culmination of a four-day gathering of over 250 delegates from 112 countries to take stock of the development of the game.
“We will start 5-a-side exhibition games from next year. It plays a very important role in spreading the game. Instead of bringing people to the game, the game can be taken to the people in the centre of a city. But we are very clear that it will not replace 11-a-side, that is played in Olympics and it will stay there,” FIH CEO Thierry Weil said here.
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‘Co-exist’
“The two can easily co-exist. Especially for the smaller countries, it is extremely important, they can take only nine players instead of 22, the cost of travel and training is also less. Five-a-side allows more teams to participate and that is our way to encourage more teams, as can be seen from the fact that Vanuatu had a hockey team at Youth Olympics,” FIH president Narinder Batra added.
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Weil also confirmed that Vanuatu had played a 5-a-side competition as part of the Hockey Series Open — the first stage in the Olympic qualifiers.
Insisting that the FIH was committed to sustainable development of the game, Weil reiterated that while international hockey at the highest level would continue to be played on artificial turf, the federation was in talks with manufacturers and suppliers to develop a surface that would not consume water.
“We are looking to achieve this by the 2024 Paris Olympics but try and do it much earlier, develop a surface close to the quality we have right now on turf with water. It will have to be a combination of turf, ball and footwear,” he said.
Weil also confirmed that the FIH was working to dispel the misconception that hockey was restricted to turf.
“Hockey is a game to have fun and can be played anywhere. When I entered FIH I got the impression that hockey can only be played on turf which is wrong. Like football (he was marketing director with the FIFA) hockey can be played on mud, grass, gravel — of course, once you go higher, there has to be a standard surface to provide all teams a level playing field.”
He also announced the launch of FIH’s live channel online on January 10, 2019 to allow streaming and recording of all games at all levels across the world.