2025 JUNIOR WORLD CUP FACT SHEETS AND OTHER ISSUES…
Good afternoon to my loyal readers and followers…
Apology as not been writing as often as possible
due to busy with matters in hand especially work and family with some golfing
over the weekends.
Let’s start…
Malaysian Men’s hockey team completed their 2
first events after disbanding Arul’s team in Jan 2024 with the hope that the
team will be on the right path in months to come and plays in LA2028. Malaysia
finished 4 out of 6 teams in SASC24 & 7th out of 9th
in FIH Nation Cups. Many were saying that the transformation is not getting any
better and been receiving comments from many former Internationals and
stakeholders. I am not going into the technical & tactical parts as been
voicing the facets in my commentary and articles. We are not producing international
player but national player. To be honest after watching the best teams in FIH
Pro League & the gap between them and us is huge and time is of essence. Looking
at pool of players, the previous players that was dropped were better off than
some new selected ones for the future. Soon or later the old horses may be
called in one by one to reinforce the team. Is that the right solution or it
will be another chaos? The biggest dilemma we have is our supply chain from sports
school & Junior World Cup squads are poor in standards and not properly
prepared teams such as 2023, 2021 & 2016/2017 which we are paying the price
today to assemble a National International Team status that could compete with
world best. Honestly, I am still skeptical how we are going to qualify to
LA2028 & win 2026 AG Gold Medal and having massive doubts and hope over
time they could be a light at the end of tunnel…
On Malaysian Women Senior Team & Junior
teams is in sleeping mode and waiting for a “jump-start” as usual a month
before participation. Not sure how they’re keeping their conditioning &
international matches temperament. All big Nation having a busy schedule. Here
waiting for Sea games and some test matches via invitation or ad-hoc.
Sorry for diverting matters…Opps forgot that Malaysian
Indoor Team qualified for a first time to 2025 Indoor World Cup. Just to
correct some facts that for a first time in Indoor Asia Cup 2 teams is given
the slots to Indoor World Cup and previously was one slot and difficult to
break the Iranian dominance.. But targeting a medal in 2025 Indoor World Cup is
like building a castle in the sky but the Coaching team also endorsed that they
could win a medal. Shocked by the news and hope is to break the top 10 first
not promising medal in 2025 Indoor World Cup…
Junior World Cup 2025 fact sheets:
In 2023 KL JWC, we targeted top 4 Semifinal
then brought it down to top 8 but failed and ended 12th placing as
host. Waited for a postmortem and way forward but no news and now comes another
cycle in preparation for 2025 JWC – Men/Women. Suggested that to implement 3
JWC cycle – U20, U18 & U16 national teams for the coming 3 JWC cycle –
2025,2027 & 2029 so that the pool of players for LA2028 & Brisbane 2032
will be in better quality players. But even for one team – 2025 JWC their
periodization plan and quality matches are not well planned and their first
major test will be the Sultan of Johor Cup – 19-26th October 2024 to
see what work they’ve done and how much the players has improved. Suggest
invest in players that can play in JWC and not in Junior Asia Cup only because
the risk to miss JWC is very low because of 24 teams in 2025 JWC.
Many were seeking for answers and please see the details/timeline below for next 2025JWC cycle:
Age Limit
All players shall be under 21 years of age as
of 31 December 2024 that is all players shall be born on or after 1 January
2004.
Men U21
Summary 24 teams – Host, Africa 3 teams: Europe 8 teams: Asia 6teams: Pan Am 3 teams & Oceania 3 teams and India will host in December 2025 - some say Chennai and Odisha yet to be confirmed.
Anyway, I still believe JWC should be a solid top 12 teams’ tournament and create another division for 12 lower teams and from here only 6 goes like super-six to join the best 6 teams as seeded similar to current T20 Cricket WC and it helps to main the competitiveness and also assist weak teams to develop or else it will be a high scoring and boring events and some teams may spoil the potential chances for big teams. See like Africa got 3 slots – SA & Egypt who is 3rd – Nigeria/Zimbabwe and see Oceania 3 slots – Aus & NZ who is next – are they ready to compete – in international hockey the competitiveness index is from1-18 and after 19 onwards the standard is poor. From these 24 teams, the Continental that will gained the most is the European nations.
The FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup 2025 will
consist of 24 teams
1.1. To qualify for the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior
World Cup 2025, National Associations must compete
in their respective Continental Federation (CF)
Junior Championships/Qualifier.
1.2. The Host Nation – 1 quota place: The host
nation.
1.3. Teams Qualified by Continental Federation
– 15 quota places
The Continental quotas are as follows:
• Africa (3): The Top 3 teams in the Junior
Africa Cup 2024
• Asia (3): The Top 3 teams in the Junior Asia
Cup 2024
• Europe (3): The Top 3 teams in the EuroHockey
U21 Championship 2024
• Pan America (3): The Top 3 team in the Junior
Pan American Championship 2024
• Oceania (3): The Top 3 teams in the Junior
Oceania Cup 2024
Note: when considering the Top 3 nations in
each CF Championship, the JWC host nation is not
included. Therefore, the continent of the host
nation will have the Top 3 teams plus the host
nation qualified,
1.4. The remaining 8 Teams will qualify via
continental quotas calculated using the FIH Men’s Junior
World Ranking on (April 10th, 2024) provided
that:
• They are not yet qualified under 1.2 and 1.3
above.
• The Continental quotas are calculated by
considering the CF of each nation in the Junior World
Rankings, and disregarding the top 3 nations
from each CF. The CFs of the top 8 ranked nations that
remain in the rankings then earn a continental
quota for their CF. These 8 continental quotas are
then filled by the highest finishing nations in
each continental championship who have not already
qualified for the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World
Cup 2025.
Therefore:
• Asia are awarded 3 additional quotas, to be
filled by the three (3) highest-placed teams in the Junior
Asia Cup 2024 not yet qualified under 1.2 or
1.3.
• Europe are awarded 5 additional quotas, to be
filled by the five (5) highest-placed teams in the
EuroHockey Junior Championship 2024 not yet
qualified under 1.2 or 1.3.
Qualification Timeline - Men
April 2024 FIH Executive Board approves
qualification
2 – 12 July Junior Pan American Championship
2024 (Surrey, Canada)
14 – 20 July EuroHockey U21 Championship
(Terrassa, Spain)
TBC Junior Asia Cup
TBC Junior Oceania Cup
October 2024 Junior Africa Cup
TBC Invitations to participate issued to
qualified National Associations
TBC National Associations to confirm in writing
to FIH their participation in the FIH Hockey
Men’s Junior World Cup 2025
TBC Team Entry Forms issued to competing
National Associations
TBC Team Entry Forms to be returned to FIH
TBC FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup 2025
(TBC)
For Women U21
Summary 24 teams – Host, Africa 3 teams: Europe
8 teams: Asia 5 teams: Pan Am 4 teams & Oceania 3 teams.
Similar like Men U21 Qualification system and
only differ is the allocation of quota for each Continental taking into account
of Junior World Ranking points as at 10th April 2024.
Qualification Timeline – Women U21
April 2024 FIH Executive Board approves
qualification
2 – 12 July Junior Pan American Championship
2024 (Surrey, Canada)
14 – 20 July EuroHockey U21 Championship
(Terrassa, Spain)
TBC Junior Asia Cup
TBC Junior Oceania Cup
October 2024 Junior Africa Cup
TBC Invitations to participate issued to
qualified National Associations
TBC National Associations to confirm in writing
to FIH their participation in the FIH Hockey
Women’s Junior World Cup 2025
TBC Team Entry Forms issued to competing
National Associations
TBC Team Entry Forms to be returned to FIH
TBC FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup 2025
(TBC)
To qualify to 2025 JWC (6 teams for Men & 5 teams for Women as Asia slots) will never be an issue for both of our Malaysian Men & Women U21 teams but the question here, what placing will be our best in 2025 JWC and creating better international players not national players quality will be the key element in this journey. Currently, couldn't foresee that we could break top 8 for men & top 12 for women and time will tell...
Wishing the very best to all national teams and
Coaches & those are involved. Will be following closely on the progress and achievements.
Godspeed.
Maninderjit Singh (Mike)
Former International & Sec Gen of MHC
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