South Africa Women win their match vs Namibia. (Click pictures to enlarge) Namibia Women record their first win of the Tournament. (Click pictures to enlarge) The SA Men record a fantastic 36-0 victory vs Botswana. (Click pictures to enlarge) Tough start to @Hockey_Botswana‘s World Cup qualifier campaign while Namibia Men record a big win. (Click pictures to enlarge)
April 13, 2021 The Indoor African Cup will take place in Thomas Moore College, Kloof., South Africa on 16-18 April. The reward for the winning men’s and women’s teams will be a place at the 2022 FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup to be held in Liège, Belgium. Taking part in the African qualifying competition are three teams that have embraced the indoor game – South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. The three teams – men and women – will play a round robin competition to decide who represents the continent at the World Cup. South Africa men will be overwhelming favourites for the title as the highest ranked team – the men rank 11th in the world. In the women’s event, things are less clear cut. While South Africa women have enjoyed a run of successful test matches in which they defeated Switzerland, Ireland and Poland, Namibia are the higher ranked team – at 9th in the world – courtesy of their participation in the FIH Indoor Hockey World cup 2018. The South Africa women’s squad, which is ranked at 14, is brimful of experienced players, including Cindy Hack and Jess O’Connor, who both have more than 100 caps for the indoor national squad. Also part of the squad are international outdoor players Celia Seerane (nee Evans) and Tegan Fourie. South Africa men have a blend of experience and youth in the ranks. Justin Domleo has been to two World Cups, and he is joined by Jethro Eustice and Rusten Abrahams who both played in the 2018 Indoor Hockey World Cup in Berlin, Germany. Bongumusa Mngoma and Dan Sibbald will both be making their debuts as international athletes. The South Africa teams will not get an easy ride however. Namibia women defeated South Africa to qualify for the 2018 Indoor Hockey World Cup and will be looking to repeat that performance, while the men have their own aspirations to follow in their female counterpart’s footsteps. Underlining the athlete’s ambitions, President of Namibia Hockey Union (NHU) Marc Nel said: “We are going there to compete and not just to participate. Our drive is to fly the Namibian flag high, so like any other games, we are taking this very seriously. Both teams are ranked in the top 20, with the women’s team ranked 9th, while the men’s team is ranked 17th in the world, which I believe are all good positions for our teams.” Botswana men and women have yet to receive a world ranking but the national team has been training hard. Zimbabwe’s Sharne Mayar will be one of the umpires at the event and she said: “It will be a showcase of amazing talent. It will be three days of really good hockey played by the best nations in Africa. “The game is spreading and growing. We have seen Botswana build a team, and that is very exciting because it is more people playing hockey across the continent at all levels of the game.” The Indoor African Cup will take place on 16-18 April in Thomas Moore College, Kloof. Keep up with results and news via the FIH website. The matches will also be streamed live on the Watch.Hockey App. #IHWC2022 #IndoorHockey Source: FIH.CH
The Indoor Africa Cup [IAC] 2021 (M/W) is the AfHF Qualifier for the Indoor World Cup [IWC] 2022 | Liège, Belgium (2-6 Feb 2022) Men & Women Teams participating from South Africa 🇿🇦 Namibia 🇳🇦 & Botswana 🇧🇼 Venue: Thomas Moore College, 15 Sykes Road, Kloof, KwaZulu Natal, Durban Sponsored by: Pharco Pharmaceuticals #IAC2021
14 December 2020 Lausanne, Switzerland: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has launched the bidding process for hosting the FIH Nations Cup which will be played in 2022 for the very first time. The aim of this new yearly event is to offer a top-level competition to the best-ranked teams not participating in the FIH Hockey Pro League and give the winners the option to be promoted to the FIH Hockey Pro League the next season, precisely. For Men as well as for Women, eight teams will be involved in the FIH Nations Cup, based on the FIH World Rankings of 31 May 2021. The FIH Nations Cup also marks the start of the promotion-relegation principle for the FIH Hockey Pro League. Indeed, both FIH Nations Cup winners will have the chance to be promoted to the 2023/24 FIH Hockey Pro League (provided they meet the necessary requirements for it). Since participation in the FIH Nations Cup is conditioned by each team’s position in the FIH World Rankings, the bidding process to host the event is only open to the National Associations of the relevant teams. And since the FIH World Rankings may evolve between now and May next year, the bidding dossier has been sent to 10 – instead of 8 – National Associations per gender, as follows: Men: Canada (10*); Malaysia (11); France (12); Ireland (13); South Africa (14); Japan (15); Korea (16); Pakistan (17); Austria (20); Egypt (21) Women: Spain (7); Ireland (8); India (9); Korea (11); Japan (13); Canada (14); South Africa (16); Italy (17); Chile (18); Russia (19) *current position in the FIH World Rankings FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: “The FIH Nations Cup is a welcome addition to our events’ portfolio. It will enable to apply the promotion-relegation principle to the FIH Hockey Pro League. Like for most other leagues, this will generate even more excitement to the competition. It will also give other nations who haven’t yet had the opportunity to join the Pro League to do so and this is only fair! And it will help grow hockey in further countries.” The deadline for submitting the bids is 31 March 2021. For more information about FIH and hockey in general, please download the Watch.Hockey app or follow the FIH social media channels – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – and website.
10 December 2020 Lausanne, Switzerland: Horizm, the award-winning provider of digital inventory management in sport, and the International Hockey Federation (FIH) have confirmed an agreement that will see FIH using Horizm’s Artificial Intelligence powered platform to help hockey’s world governing body unlock new digital revenues. The collaboration highlights the FIH’s growing commitment to digital as a key component of its commercial strategy and, through Horizm’s real-time solution, will enable FIH to establish accurate market valuations for its different digital assets. It will also provide FIH with the intelligence and the tools to create new digital content franchises that can be monetised directly, or in partnership with Horizm. Commenting on the announcement and the challenges sports organisations face when trying to understand the value of their digital channels, FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: “We’re very happy to have engaged on this partnership with Horizm. They can deliver clear measurement as well as a valuation and evaluation of our digital assets. And then quantify this for us. This is much needed data which we will use for our current and potential future commercial partners”. FIH Sponsorship Sales Director Ricky Thussu added: “We’ve been on the journey with digital where data, content, social media, OTT have played an integral part and Horizm is just the right layer to wrap around them so we can quantify the value delivered through these engagement and touchpoints we have created”. Horizm, CEO, Pedro Mestriner said: “It is a pleasure to be working with such a progressive and forward-thinking sports federation whose commitment to unlocking digital value is an example to others in the industry”. The FIH engages hockey fans globally across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, its OTT platform Watch.Hockey – available both as an app and a web version – and its official websites (www.FIH.ch and www.FIHProLeague.com) and is supported by a portfolio of seven official global partners and suppliers. Horizm’s success in helping sports rights holders like the FIH unlock digital revenues was recently recognised at leading industry event, the World Football Summit Industry Awards, where they were chosen as Best Supplier presented by SportsTechX. Horizm also used World Football Summit to announce their collaboration with LaLiga Champions, Real Madrid CF. #HockeyDigital #GrowingDigital
