As we pull the curtains on the riveting hockey year that was 2024, we take a look at how things look in the world rankings heading into the new year of 2025, that promises to bring even more thrilling hockey action your way!
In the men’s world rankings, Olympic champions Netherlands (3267) stand at the top of the rankings. Netherlands started the year in the top spot following a great run in the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup, and gold medals at the FIH Hockey Pro League and the EuroHockey Championship in 2023. Adding a gold at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 further solidified their status as the team to beat heading into 2025!
A fast start to the 2024-25 season of the FIH Hockey Pro League has propelled England (3139) into second place in the world with Belgium (3124) in third following closely behind, having made a good start to the new Pro League season themselves.
Germany (3066) had climbed up to second place following their silver medal at Paris 2024, but a rough start to the Pro League sees them drop two places, down to fourth in the world.
India (2955) and Australia (2814) are placed fifth and sixth in the world, with both teams set to start their Pro League seasons at home in February 2025, with Australia playing in Sydney from 4 February, while India will start their campaign on 15 February in Bhubaneswar.
Argentina (2722), Spain (2570), France (2116) and Ireland (2112) round out the top-10 to end 2024, with South Africa (2082), New Zealand (2058), Malaysia (1970), Korea (1945) and Pakistan (1942) giving chase as teams ranked from 11 to 15.
In the women’s world rankings, Netherlands (3689) had another perfect year winning the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, along with another FIH Hockey Pro League title. The Dutch dominance on field means they remain well clear of the competition on the world ranking table heading into the new year.
Argentina (3203) continue to remain in a distant second place, following their bronze medal performance at Paris 2024. They did manage to close the gap between themselves and Netherlands earlier this month, after getting their first win in nearly three years, over the Dutch side in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2024-25.
Belgium (2918), Germany (2846) and Australia (2820) started the year as the third, fourth and fifth ranked teams in the world and continue to hold the same positions as we head into 2025. However, following closely behind and rapidly closing the gap are Alyson Annan’s China (2685) who have gone from strength to strength in 2024, with a historic silver medal performance at the Olympics being the crowning achievement in a year where they achieved plenty of new highs.
England (2471) are stepping into a new era following a slew of retirements in the aftermath of Paris 2024, and while they hold on to the seventh spot in the world rankings, three losses in four matches to start the new season of the Pro League mean, the chasing pack have now closed in on the English.
Spain (2422), India (2350) and New Zealand (2124) round out the top-10 positions heading into 2025. Both Spain and India will aim to climb up the rankings ladder early in 2025 when they start their FIH Hockey Pro League 2024-25 campaigns in February, in Sydney and Bhubaneswar respectively.
The chasing pack behind the top-10 includes Japan (2063) in eleventh, Ireland (2028) in twelfth, United States (1998) in thirteenth, Chile (1962) in fourteenth and Korea (1869) in fifteenth.
Biggest Rank Gainers of 2024
While there have been steady movements in the top-10 world rankings, there are teams lower down the order that have made huge strides over 2024. In the men’s rankings Namibia were the biggest movers, going up 20 places from 84 at the start of the year to 64 at the end of it. Trinidad and Tobago also impressively moved up 15 places to end the year as world rank 36, having started the year at 51!
Among the women’s teams, once again it’s Namibia with the most impressive showing, gaining 18 places to move from 66 to 48 through 2024. China’s rise from the 10th ranked team in the world at the start of 2024 to their current ranking of 6th in the world, while also rapidly catching up to the teams ahead, has been an enormously impressive feat as well!
To see the complete FIH World Rankings, please click here.
The rankings calculations model that FIH introduced on 1st January 2020 moved away from the previous tournament-based rankings system to a dynamic, match-based method where opposing teams exchange points in official, FIH sanctioned games. The number of points exchanged depends on the result of the match, the relative ranking of the teams and the importance of the match. More information about the new rankings model can be found below.
How the FIH World Rankings work:
The number of points exchanged depends on the result of the match, the relative ranking of the teams and the importance of the match.
FIH World Rankings explained:
- Based on the Elo rating system, which is used as the basis of many other sports ranking systems
- When two nations play against each other, a number of ranking points are exchanged between them
- In every match, the number of points gained by one team is exactly matched by the number of points lost by the other
- Teams will win more points for beating teams ranked above them, and therefore teams will lose more points for losing to a team ranked below them
- Teams will win less points for beating teams ranked below them, and therefore teams will lose less points for losing to a team ranked above them
- If a draw occurs, the lower ranked team will gain a small number of points and the higher ranked team will lose the same number of points
- The number of points exchanged is dependent on the result of the match (win, lose, shootout win/loss or draw), the importance of the match (part of a major tournament, or a test series for example), and the relative difference in ranking points between the teams before the match.
More details about the formula used in the algorithm, weightings of matches and other factors can be found HERE together with a Frequently Asked Questions document HERE.
Source: FIH.hockey
