Featured
Hockey's Olympics qualification - what happens next for India

Olympic Qualification Process
The Olympic Qualification process for Hockey is the same for both men and women and is rather simple. There will be a total of 12 teams per gender competing in Tokyo. Six of these teams were expected to qualify directly – the five continental champions (Asia, Pan-America, Africa, Oceania and Europe) and the hosts Japan. However, with Japan having won the Asian Games Gold in both the men’s and women’s events, only five teams will now qualify directly. The continental championships for all the continents other than Asia are yet to be played. The remaining seven qualifying teams will come from the Olympic Qualifiers, which are a series of seven independent club-football-style head-to-head match-ups. Every team will face just one opponent in two matches, with the team having the higher aggregate score over the two matches advancing to Tokyo. Unlike club football though, the games will not be played on a home-and-away basis but will both be played at the home of higher ranked team based on World Rankings. Thus, 14 teams need to qualify for the Olympic Qualifiers. These consist of the top four teams of the FIH Pro League, the top two teams of each of the three FIH Hockey Series Finals and the four highest-ranked teams based on World Rankings not otherwise qualified. However, in practice, six to eight teams are expected to qualify based on World Rankings. This is because the Continental Champions, who qualify directly for the Olympics and thus will not play the Olympic Qualifiers, are anyway likely to come from teams qualified for the Olympic Qualifiers, and therefore all such extraneous spots will be reallocated based on the World Rankings. Further, the 14 teams competing in the Olympic Qualifiers will essentially be divided into four seeding levels based on World Ranking. The highest-ranked three teams among the qualifiers will form the highest seeding group and will be drawn by lots to play against the lowest ranked three teams. Similarly, the teams ranked fourth to seventh among the qualifiers will be drawn to play against the teams ranked 8th - 11th. Hence, World Rankings will be critical in determining who gets a relatively weaker opponent and thus an easier path to Tokyo.Men’s Rankings
The current Men’s World Rankings are as follows.
World Rank | Country | Continent | Ranking Points | Pro League Placing | Hockey Series Placing | Olympic Qualifier Status | Continental Champion Status | Likely Olympic Qualifier Seeding |
1 | AUSTRALIA | Oceania | 2350 | 1 | Qualified | Highly Likely | Unlikely to compete | |
2 | BELGIUM | Europe | 2298 | 2 | Qualified | Possible | 1-2, if competes | |
3 | NETHERLANDS | Europe | 2205 | 3 | Qualified | Possible | 1-2, if competes | |
4 | ARGENTINA | America | 1988 | 5 | Assured Qualification | Highly Likely | Unlikely to compete | |
5 | INDIA | Asia | 1823 | 1 | Qualified | No | 2-4 | |
6 | ENGLAND | Europe | 1779 | 4 | Qualified | Possible | 2-4, if competes | |
7 | GERMANY | Europe | 1770 | 6 | Assured Qualification | Possible | 2-4, if competes | |
8 | NEW ZEALAND | Oceania | 1459 | 8 | Assured Qualification | Unlikely | 5-6 | |
9 | SPAIN | Europe | 1360 | 7 | Assured Qualification | Unlikely | 5-7 | |
10 | CANADA | America | 1325 | 1 | Qualified | Unlikely | 7-11 | |
11 | IRELAND | Europe | 1193 | 2 | Qualified | Unlikely | 7-11 | |
12 | MALAYSIA | Asia | 1173 | 2 | Qualified | No | 7-11 | |
13 | FRANCE | Europe | 1143 | 1 | Qualified | No | 8-11 | |
14 | SOUTH AFRICA | Africa | 1043 | 2 | Qualified | Likely | 8-11, if competes | |
15 | SOUTH KOREA | Asia | 910 | 3 | Assured Qualification | No | 11-13 | |
16 | JAPAN | Asia | 860 | 3 | - | CHAMPIONS | - | |
17 | PAKISTAN | Asia | 855 | Highly Likely | No | 12-14 | ||
18 | CHINA | Asia | 828 | 6 | OUT | No | - | |
19 | AUSTRIA | Europe | 778 | 4 | Likely | No | 13-14, if competes | |
20 | EGYPT | Africa | 698 | 5 | Likely | Unlikely | 13-14, if competes | |
21 | SCOTLAND | Europe | 655 | 4 | Does not compete separately in Olympics | |||
22 | POLAND | Europe | 606 | 6 | Highly Unlikely | No | ||
23 | RUSSIA | Europe | 598 | 5 | Unlikely | No | 13-14, if competes | |
24 | UNITED STATES | America | 559 | 4 | Unlikely | Unlikely | 11-12, if competes | |
25 | WALES | Europe | 555 | 5 | Does not compete separately in Olympics | |||
26 | ITALY | Europe | 483 | 3 | Unlikely | No | 13-14, if competes | |
27 | UKRAINE | Europe | 410 | 7 | Highly Unlikely | No | ||
28 | CHILE | America | 384 | 6 | Highly Unlikely | Highly Unlikely |
Men’s Scenarios
The Indian men are currently ranked 5. First of all, the teams ranked eight and below are too far behind to catch up with India. Hence, India is assured of a spot in the top seven of the world and therefore, WILL play their Olympic Qualifier at home. The question then is; can India reach the top seeding group by being among the top 3 teams in the Olympic Qualifier? Now, the top 3 teams in the world – Australia, Belgium and Netherlands – cannot drop below India even if they have a disaster at their respective continental tournaments. Argentina, World Rank 4, will drop below India if it fails to reach the final of the Pan American Games, though with the competition on offer that would be a major upset.
Women’s Rankings
The current Women’s World Rankings are as follows.
World Rank | Country | Continent | Ranking Points | Pro League Placing | Hockey Series Placing | Olympic Qualifer Status | Continental Champion Status | Likely Olympic Qualifer Seeding |
1 | NETHERLANDS | Europe | 2578 | 1 | Qualified | Possible | 1, if competes | |
2 | AUSTRALIA | Oceania | 2070 | 2 | Qualified | Highly Likely | Unlikely to compete | |
3 | ARGENTINA | America | 1938 | 4 | Qualified | Highly Likely | Unlikely to compete | |
4 | ENGLAND | Europe | 1861 | 8 | Assured Qualification | Possible | 1-5, if competes | |
5 | GERMANY | Europe | 1793 | 3 | Qualified | Possible | 1-5, if competes | |
6 | NEW ZEALAND | Oceania | 1683 | 6 | Assured Qualification | Unlikely | 2-4 | |
7 | SPAIN | Europe | 1613 | 1 | Qualified | Possible | 2-7, if competes | |
8 | IRELAND | Europe | 1480 | 2 | Qualified | Possible | 3-9, if competes | |
9 | BELGIUM | Europe | 1445 | 5 | Assured Qualification | Possible | 5-10, if competes | |
10 | INDIA | Asia | 1443 | 1 | Qualified | No | 5-8 | |
11 | CHINA | Asia | 1421 | 7 | Assured Qualification | No | 6-9 | |
12 | SOUTH KOREA | Asia | 1380 | 1 | Qualified | No | 7-10 | |
13 | UNITED STATES | America | 1223 | 9 | Assured Qualification | Unlikely | 5-11 | |
14 | JAPAN | Asia | 1185 | 2 | - | CHAMPIONS | - | |
15 | CHILE | America | 1085 | 3 | Likely | Unlikely | 11-14, if competes | |
16 | SOUTH AFRICA | Africa | 983 | 4 | Likely | Likely | 11-13, if competes | |
17 | ITALY | Europe | 929 | 3 | Likely | No | 11-14, if competes | |
18 | CANADA | America | 823 | 2 | Qualified | Highly Unlikely | 11-14 | |
19 | SCOTLAND | Europe | 713 | 5 | Does not compete separately in Olympics | |||
20 | MALAYSIA | Asia | 708 | 3 | Unlikely | No | 14, if competes | |
21 | CZECH REPUBLIC | Europe | 703 | 4 | OUT | No | ||
22 | BELARUS | Europe | 625 | 5 | Possible | Highly Unlikely | 13-14, if competes | |
23 | RUSSIA | Europe | 596 | 4 | Possible | Highly Unlikely | 13-14, if competes | |
24 | POLAND | Europe | 580 | 5 | OUT | No | ||
25 | URUGUAY | America | 483 | 6 | Highly Unlikely | Highly Unlikely | ||
26 | WALES | Europe | 475 | 6 | Does not compete separately in Olympics | |||
27 | UKRAINE | Europe | 418 | 7 | OUT | No | ||
28 | THAILAND | Asia | 335 | 7 | OUT | No |
Women’s Scenarios
The Indian women are currently ranked 10. The only team ranked below India that can overtake them in USA. This is because USA was upset by Chile in the 2017 Pan American Cup and hence lost a lot of points. If, as expected, USA reach the final of the 2019 Pan American Games then they will gain points and rise through the rankings to around World Rank 8, pushing India down to no. 11. Further, the only teams currently above India that can fall below are Ireland and Belgium. Thus, India will end up with a World Ranking between 8 and 11. However, a World Ranking of 11 is highly precarious for India. This is because of the ten teams ahead of India, three would be expected to qualify directly for Tokyo as continental champions of Europe, Oceania and Pan-America. That would leave India as eighth among the teams participating in the Olympic qualifier, thus just missing out on being in the top 7 seeds that will play the qualifier at home!! In this worst-case but likely scenario, India would be forced to play away with the opponent likely to be drawn from Spain, Ireland, Belgium and USA.