On Thursday 13th June, the Hockey World League enters a
new phase when the first of the Semi Finals tournaments gets underway
at H.C. Rotterdam in The Netherlands. The Semi Finals act as qualifying
competitions for the men's and women's Rabobank Hockey World Cup, which
takes place in The Hague (NED) in the summer of 2014.
So, what do teams have to do to seal a place at that showpiece event?
To help answer this question, the FIH has put together a few lines
explaining the qualification criteria.
Qualification criteria - Rabobank Hockey World Cup 2014
The following men’s and women’s teams will qualify for the Rabobank Hockey World Cup 2014- The hosts (Netherlands)
- The 5 Continental Champions
- The 6 highest ranked teams from the Hockey World League Semi-Finals 2013 who have not qualified as host or Continental Champions (this will be 7 if Netherlands is European Champion).
- The teams that finish in the top three places of each semi-final will automatically have qualified regardless of where they finish in their respective Continental Championship.
- If Netherlands finish in the top three places in their semi-final(s) this automatically opens up another qualification place to the team that has the highest world ranking that finishes 4th in the semi-finals.
- The 6 (7) highest placed teams in the Hockey World League Semi-Finals 2013 not qualified as host or Continental Champion will qualify. These places will only become known after the Continental Championships.
- Where the last place available is shared between teams that finish in the same position in the two semi-final tournaments, the team to qualify will be that which has the highest FIH World Ranking current at the time of the completion of the latter of those two tournaments.
