MALAYSIAN MEN’S HOCKEY TEAM – SCENARIOS &
CHANCES FOR FIH OLYMPICS QUALIFICATION
Apology to all my dedicated readers for not writing for sometime and was only tweeting views.
Firstly, we failed miserably in the 19th
Asian Games after so many promises and hype that we will win the Gold and be in
Paris 2024.
Prior to Asian Games, Arena called for an interview which was just 40 days away to Gold, raised many pertinent & prerequisite points for us to win the Gold. As usual even the Head Coach rebutted the points and it happened based on the valid points raised.
For those who are not aware of the interview, please click the link below and understand it well.
We created history by finishing 6th after losing to ill prepared and young Pakistan team without any proper plan and lack of funds but they had the determination and the will to win that match.
Overall, in the past 8 years, we have been sliding badly and couldn’t keep up with the competitive edge in world hockey. Even winning Sultan Azlan Shah Cup last year is not the true reflection of the success as all the invited teams are below par and it makes us easy to lift the trophy.
Even in the recent FIH Hockey World Cup 2023, we finished No 13 which is second last among the 16 teams as that is the real indication where we stand in world hockey as the 10th ranking is an artificial testament because people do not understand the tabulations and new ranking methodology was only introduced in 2020 but due to Covid19 many events were postponed and ratio or number of matches among teams wasn’t equitable. The real reality check of the rankings will be known after Paris Olympics.
And even suggested to host 2023 SASC in Nov as this will allow us to be well prepared for FIH Olympics Qualification in January 2024 but they decided to postpone it with the reason that wanted to organize indoor events.
Now let’s look what is in store in January 2024 FIH Olympics Qualification:
The Process:
Spain’s Valencia will host one of the two men’s
qualifying tournaments while the other will be held in Oman’s Muscat instead of
Lahore in Pakistan.
Each Paris 2024 hockey qualifying tournament will feature eight teams and the top three teams from each of these FIH qualifying tournaments will make the cut for the Paris 2024 Games. A total of 12 teams per gender will play at the Summer Games next year.
The seedings and teams for the Olympic qualifiers will be determined after the end of all the continental championships taking place in 2023.
The winners of the men’s hockey tournaments at the five continental championships qualify directly for Paris 2024.
See image below:
Have suggested many times to bid for the Olympic Qualification rather than any other international events but they bid for Junior World Cup 2023 which is meaningless as we needed Qualification event such as Paris Olympics Qualification which the bid was open late Dec last year. But anyway, suddenly we realized when Pakistan withdrawal and Oman is substituted as we didn’t submit our bid when it was open last Dec/Jan 22/23. Oman was first standby.
We have targeted to play in Semifinal in 2023 KL Junior World Cup and will write about where we will finish in the next article when time permits.
Let’s get back to the Qualification.
Since we lost/draw 3 matches in a row against under ranked teams like China, Korea & Pakistan, we now stand at 12th placing in world rankings and left with 2 more Continental Championships – Africa & Pan Am.
With that, we could already make about 80% of assumptions where we will play and who will be in our group.
Valencia Muscat
Belgium Great
Britain
Spain Germany
Korea New
Zealand
Ireland Malaysia
Canada/Jpn Jpn/Canada
Pak/Egypt Egypt/Pak
Austria China
Ukraine Chile
Then the above 8 in each venue will be divided
into 2 pools with SF & Finals with 3/4 placing and other classifications.
Based on the above details, then the grouping in
Muscat, Oman will be the followings:
A B
Great Britain Germany
Malaysia New
Zealand
Jpn/Canada Pak/Egypt
Chile China
It will be a Great Britain & Germany Finals.
Left last slot – 3rd placing – it will be a fight between New Zealand, Malaysia, Japan or Canada, Pakistan or Egypt with Chile & China playing the spoilers in the pool matches.
Not easy to beat New Zealand in the Qualifiers.
Malaysia needs to get into semifinals and tough crossover Germany awaits and 3/4 placing awaits NZ which will be the decider.
And strange, the team is travelling to New Zealand in December for some international matches, suggest to not play as NZ will be your opponent and they may use their 2nd team or rotate key players and the pool for qualification will be announced in mid Nov and don’t then you are caught in catch 22 situation.
And due to last minute planning, its tough to get any international matches as FIH Pro League commences soon.
Anyway, this piece is written to give the custodians and hockey lovers to understand the processes and where we may play and against who with the difficult pathway to Paris Olympics.
We had an easier door via Asian Games but we failed miserably after 2 years of preparation and many foreign consultants and easily spent close to 5 to 7 million but we only managed to finish 6th in Asian Games and currently ranked 12th in the World Hockey. Soon we may be 13-14 after Africa & Pan Am.
After the failure in the Asian Games, many were saying & pushing for changes but its not fair as we only have 2 months to FIH Qualification and it should be retained as we don’t have the luxurious time to make any amend.
If we failed in FIH Qualification in January
2024, then we are doomed as this team with more than 2300 International Caps and
aging players, I believe this will be their “Last Dance”.
Wishing the very best to our Malaysian Hockey
Team and hoping we will be in Paris Olympics.
Godspeed…
P/S
– As Women Hockey, we finish better than
men in Asian Games and the best that we could achieve is to play in the FIH
Olympics Qualifications to gain exposure as we have a very slim chance to
qualify to Paris Olympics. We will struggle as playing against the world best…
- Todays start the one of the Premier Domestic Hockey Tournament - Tun Abdul Razak Cup as no any National Senior & Junior players and Hockey 5s players are allowed to play, then it will be low key and poor in standard. It may be similar to Sukma Games with some retired aging players playing. It used to be a key tournament for hockey players to be selected to National Teams but not anymore as is organised to fulfill the yearly hockey calendar.
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