Hockey: Hyderabad named as host of World Cup 2026 qualifiers featuring Indian women’s team

Chile (City of Santiago), Egypt (Ismailia) apart from India were named as hosts for the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 Qualifiers which represent the final stage of qualification for next year’s FIH Hockey World Cup, which will be hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands (15-30 August 2026). Seven teams per gender will qualify through these events.

India missed out on automatic qualification for 2026 World Cup with China earning the ticket as Asia Cup winners, with a dominant display in Hangzhou. Now India will have to take the scenic route. The two qualification tournaments per gender, consisting of eight teams each (16 teams in total), will take place in the aforementioned cities. Seven quota spots are available from these two qualifiers for each of the World Cups. The qualifiers will have two pools of four teams each from which the top two qualify for the semifinals. Winners of the semifinals and the team that finishes third will qualify. The highest world-ranked team among those finishing in fourth place in each event will be the seventh team to qualify.

The Indian men’s team have already qualified for the World Cup, thanks to their triumph at the Asia Cup in Rajgir last year. The Indian women’s team, currently without a head coach after Harendra Singh parted ways recently, will have their task cut out in Hyderabad. The last time India hosted a qualifier, the hosts failed to get the berth for Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Here are the teams have been allocated according to the FIH World Rankings:

City of Santiago, Chile (28 February – 8 March 2026)

Women: Australia, Japan, Ireland, Chile, France, Canada, Malaysia and Switzerland

Men: France, Ireland, Korea, Wales, Scotland, Canada, Poland and Chile

Hyderabad, Telangana, India (8 – 14 March 2026)

Women: England, India, Scotland, Korea, Italy, Uruguay, Wales and Austria

Ismailia, Egypt (1–7 March 2026)

Men: England, Malaysia, Pakistan, Egypt, Japan, Austria, China and USA