On December 11, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced the dates and venues for the Women’s World Cup Qualifiers. This time, one of the eight-team events will be hosted in Hyderabad, India, scheduled from March 8 to 14. The remaining qualifier events will be held in Chile (City of Santiago) and Egypt (Ismailia). Chile is also the host of one of the men’s qualifier events.
The Qualifiers are the final round of qualification for the FIH World Cup 2026, which will be hosted in Belgium and the Netherlands from August 15 to 30. The eight teams that will be participating in the qualifiers, besides India, include England, Scotland, Korea, Italy, Uruguay, Wales, and Austria. India currently sits behind England as the No. 2 team.
The World Cup Qualifiers are the only chance that India has left to earn a spot in the FIH World Cup. This time, they also have the home-ground advantage.
However, a total of seven teams per gender (men and women) will qualify for the World Cup scheduled next year. The top three teams (first, second, and third) from each of the two tournaments will earn their place in the FIH 2026 World Cup. Meanwhile, the highest world-ranked team to finish in fourth place from each event will be the final team to qualify for the flagship FIH tournament.
The Indian women’s hockey team has previously missed out on their automatic qualification for the 2026 World Cup after losing against China in the Asia Cup 2025 finals. China has already qualified as the Asia Cup winners in Hangzhou.
After their victory in the Men’s Hockey Asia Cup during September, Indian have directly qualified for the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026.
The Indian men’s hockey team defeated the Republic of Korea by a score of 4-1 in the finals of the Asia Cup 2025 held at the Rajgir Sports Complex in Bihar. This was India’s fourth victory in the men’s tournament, with their last win eight years before in the year 2017.
Teams’ division according to FIH World Rankings
1. 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
2. Hyderabad, Telangana, India (8 – 14 March 2026)
Women: England, India, Scotland, Korea, Italy, Uruguay, Wales and Austria
3. Ismailia, Egypt (1–7 March 2026)
Men: England, Malaysia, Pakistan, Egypt, Japan, Austria, China and USA
