Pakistan need to improve hockey ranking to enter Olympics

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will have to improve their hockey ranking by almost eight places in less than a year’s time to get multiple options to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Besides the Asian Games champion teams, some top Asian teams can still qualify to play in the qualifying round to be held prior to the Paris Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved the qualification pathway for the Paris 2024 Olympic hockey tournament as submitted by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

Consequently, the qualification process per gender will be as follows: Host Nation: 1 team (on the basis that both teams — Men and Women — have satisfied the FIH criteria of achieving a ranking of 25 or better in the FIH World Rankings since the end of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, which is the case for both French teams)

Continental Qualifications: Five Teams: The winning team of each of the following continental competitions will qualify: African Hockey Road to Paris 2023; Pan American Games 2023; Asian Games 2022; Euro Hockey Championship 2023; Oceania Cup 2023.

FIH Hockey Olympic Qualification Tournaments: Six teams: There will be two FIH Hockey Olympic Qualification tournaments, consisting of 8 teams each (16 teams in total), held in early 2024. The number of teams from each Continent participating in these tournaments will be based on Continental quotas, which will be determined according to the FIH World Rankings on 31 January 2023.