By Maninderjit Singh (Mike) – 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup Detail Information* *Malaysian Men’s Hockey Journey and the probability of which teams we will face and the grouping?*

Warm Greetings to all my ardent supporters and readers. Been busy and with some time now, and also many people asking me on the chances and how the qualification system work, so decided to pen my views on the Malaysian Men’s Hockey Team journey to 2026 World Cup and providing the processes and facts.

The FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2026 will consist of 16 teams. We are lucky as not 12 teams like Olympics and thanks to FIH for expansion from 12 to 16 since 2018 World Cup but this format was used as trial for 2002 KL World Cup. If 12 teams World Cup, we do not have a chance to play, but even with 16, the obstacles and the challengers are quite tough but all depends on the grouping.

The 16 teams are divided by the following quotas and who have qualified:

2 Host – Belgium & Netherlands

2 Pro League – Australia & Spain

5 Continental – India Germany Argentina New Zealand and left last Continental event – African Cup 2025 next month and South Africa will steal that slot.

– more important is the FIH WC Qualifiers where the balance 7 slots.

Let’s zoom in more for the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers as this event will be the decider for Malaysian Men hockey team.

There will be 2 (two) FIH Hockey World Cup Qualification Tournaments, consisting of eight (8) teams each (16 teams in total), held in early 2026.

The 16 Teams, in my view are the followings after doing some research and taking certain assumptions with world ranking calculations for African Cup 2025 next month and 3 best matches between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The allocation of the teams for both Tournaments will be based on the FIH World Rankings on 19 October 2025, the day after the last Continental Qualifier. My Seedings on the 16 Teams based on rankings are as below:

1England 2. France 3. Ireland 4. Malaysia 5. Pakistan 6. Korea 7. Wales 8. Egypt 9. Japan 10. Scotland 11. Canada 12. Austria 13. China 14. Poland 15. Chile 16. US

How they will distribute the above 16 teams into 2 venues of 8 Teams

Even pending 2 more events – African Cup 2025 & best of 3 Matches Pak vs Bangladesh, did some calculations and the impact on the seeding is very minimal and the assumption detail below is close to 95% accurate:

– it will be based on a snake system and the teams ranking order of 16 teams in the FIH World Cup Qualification Tournaments will be as follow:

Tournament A 1 Eng, 4 Msia, 5 Pakistan, 8 Egypt, 9 Japan, 12 Austria, 13 China, 16 US

Tournament B 2 France, 3 Ireland, 6 Korea, 7 Wales, 10 Scotland, 11 Canada, 14 Poland, 15 Chile

Then we break it to the pools as follows:

Tournament A will be in Kuala Lumpur as Malaysia got the bid to host one of the WC Qualifiers and Tournament B will be announced soon by FIH:

*IN KL Tournament A grouping will be:*

Grp A – Eng Egypt Jpn US

Grp B – Msia Pak Austria China

*Tournament B (Host yet TBA) grouping will be:*

Grp A – France Wales Scotland Chile

Grp B – Ireland Korea Canada Poland

The tournament format will be as follows:

• Two (2) pools of four (4) teams each;

• Semi-Final will be played by the top two (2) teams from each pool;

• Team not qualified to the semi-finals will play classification matches from 5-8

Note 1: If the 2 hosts are allocated by the snake system to participate in the same tournament, then

the lower ranked of the two hosts will be swapped into the other tournament with the equivalent ranked team allocated to the other tournament.

*How the 7 Teams will be decided that will qualify to 2026 WC with 2 venues:*

• Winners of the Semi-Finals are qualified to the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2026

• Winners of the Bronze medal matches are qualified to the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2026

• The highest World Ranked team (at midnight on the final day of the qualification tournaments) that finishes in 4th place in each Event will also qualify to the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2026

Will write our chances as we get nearer to the event – next assignment for Malaysian Men is 6 warm up matches and Sultan Azlan Shah in Nov 2025 and whereas our Junior Team just came back from China (went twice) and will be playing in Sultan of Johor Cup early next month and thereafter Junior World Cup Nov/Dec in India.

As for Women we qualified to play in World Cup Qualifier but my view its more of exposure and slim chance. Even our Junior World Women team will play in the Junior World Cup – thanks to FIH for the expansion of number of teams from 16 to 24 which I disagree as the competitive edge between top 15 and others are in a big gap and it will be a high goal scoring tournament and some teams will face humiliation and worried the government may reduce their support to the results obtained.

So okay guys, thanks again for being my loyal reader – till my next article – all the best and stay healthy always!

Signing Off…

*Maninderjit Singh (Mike) – 2 Olympics and 2 World Cups with twice Asian All Stars**Former Malaysian Hockey International & Secretary General of MHC/MHF, Member of FIH Think Tank Committee*

BY MANINDERJIT SINGH (MIKE) ROAD TO FIH MEN'S WORLD CUP 2026 – UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESSES & MALAYSIAN HOCKEY CHANCES

Warm Greetings to all my ardent readers and hockey supporters in Malaysia and the rest of the world. Been busy involved with Astro broadcasting team for the recent FIH Nation Cup in Kuala Lumpur and hope everyone enjoyed our insights and analysis on the tournament. It was well organized and well done to those involved.

There was a lot of confusion and explanation about the Road to Men’s Hockey World Cup 2026, therefore, I have decided to pen down the detail understanding of the processes and also provided some assumptions on the probable teams and their chances.

Let’s start…..

The 2026 Men's FIH Hockey World Cup will be the 16th edition of the Men's FIH Hockey World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national field hockey teams organized by the International Hockey Federation. It will be held from 14 to 30 August 2026 in Wavre, Belgium and Amstelveen, Netherlands.

The Malaysian Women Team would not have any chance to qualify - even at FIH Nation Cup 2 (Tier 3 International event after Pro League & Nation Cup 1) in Poland, we managed to secure 7^th place out of 8 teams – generally we may play in the Qualifiers and to make it, the chances are very very very slim….Thats the reality.

Let’s discuss about the Malaysian Men’s Hockey – Road to World Cup 2026. Many hockey fans and stakeholders with former international has spoken and provided solutions of the current predicaments of Malaysian Hockey Team. Some are good and some are bad, some are happy and some are not happy. Ok keep this discussion away and let’s zoom in to the Road to 2026 FIH World Cup – crucial 7 months.

If it’s a 12 Teams as many years ago – Malaysia Hockey can say Goodbye and we must say thanks to FIH for expanding the number of teams – 16 Teams since last 3 World Cups since 2018. Our results we finished second last in all 3 editions 2014, 2018 and 2023 FIH World Cup. Best Finish in 1975 no 4 and in 2002 no 8. These are the 2 best positions achieved in the last 15 World Cups editions.  

The Breakdown of the 16 Teams, see below the image for the explanation:

2 Host – Netherlands & Belgium

2 Pro League - Australia & one more by 30^th June – most probably Germany will take this slot.

5 Continental Championship

7 via World Cup Qualifiers.

There will be 2 doors to 2026 World Cup – win the Asia Cup in Rajbir, India August/September – India will win it to seal their spot and others like Pakistan, Korea has improved well.

We will end up playing the Qualifiers in World Cup – lets understand this door better as this is very crucial.

Teams Qualified via the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup Qualification Tournaments 7 quotas. There will be 2 (two) FIH Hockey World Cup Qualification Tournaments, consisting of eight (8) teams each (16 teams in total), held in early 2026. The tournament format will be as follows:

• Two (2) pools of four (4) teams each;

• Semi-Final will be played by the top two (2) teams from each pool;

• Team not qualified to the semi-finals will play classification matches from 5-8

• Winners of the Semi-Finals are qualified to the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2026

• Winners of the Bronze medal matches are qualified to the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2026

• The highest World Ranked team (at midnight on the final day of the qualification tournaments) that finishes in 4th place in each Event will be also qualified to the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2026.

The teams invited to participate in these FIH Qualification Tournaments will be based on continental quotas, determined by the number of nations from each continent who are World Ranked in the top 25 eligible nations on 31 January 2025.

From these 25 quotas, the continents of the nine (9) nations already qualified (the 2 hosts, the 2 FIH Pro League Qualified Teams and 1 from each of the 5 Continental Championships) will be removed, leaving 16 continental quotas. These 16 continental quotas will be filled by the highest finishing nations in each continental championship who have not already qualified for the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2026. Based on the FIH World Rankings on 31 January, 2026.

Let’s workout the Assumptions:

Direct Slots:

Netherland, Belgium, Australia & Germany (TBC via Pro League)

India-Asia, Argentina-Pan Am, New Zealand – Oceania, S Africa – African & England – European

The balance 16 Teams for World Cup Qualifiers will be:

Spain, France, Ireland, Malaysia, Korea, Pakistan, Japan, China, Wales, Chile, Canada, Austria, Scotland, Poland, United States, Egypt – these teams will put in ranking order – on 1^st February 2026.

How the Seeding between the above 16 teams into 2 venue of 8 Teams:

The snake system will be used to allocate the 16 nations into the two FIH World Cup Qualification Tournaments, as shown below.

Snake system

Ranking order of 16 teams in the FIH World Cup Qualification Tournaments

Tournament A 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16

Tournament B 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15

Note: If the 2 hosts are allocated by the snake system to participate in the same tournament, then the lower ranked of the two hosts will be swapped into the other tournament with the equivalent ranked team allocated to the other tournament.

From these 16 teams – the best seven (7) that has a chance to qualify are:

6 slots - France, Spain, Ireland, Pakistan, Korea, Malaysia – other slots will be from Wales, Chile, China, Canada & Scotland are the 2^nd best teams that could be the spoilers and steal slots. The rest is more of participations & exposure level.

 If 12 teams like previous World Cups – Malaysia no chance but 16 teams WC, still have a chance to be part of 2026 World Cup. But Austria, Chile, Wales, China, Scotland and Canada are vast improved team in World Hockey and the gap between them & us is getting very close and narrow over the years.

Let’s see the next 7 Months after finishing 6^th out of 8 at the FIH Nation Cup in KL recently – first will be the Asia Cup in Rajbir - 27 August to 7 September 2025.

Wishing the Men’s Malaysian Hockey Team, the very best and good luck in your preparation….

MANINDERJIT SINGH (MIKE)

Former Malaysian Hockey International - 1990-2002

Former Secretary General of Malaysian Hockey Confederation & Member of FIH "Think Tank" 2009-2012