The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is delighted to announce that its first ever senior World Hockey5s event – which was initially scheduled in September this year but postponed due to COVID-related issues – will take place on 4-5 June 2022, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Intense competition, music entertainment and additional activities, such as initiations or demonstrations, are high on the programme of an event which will enable to showcase hockey and engage further with the public. Access to ‘FIH Hockey5s Lausanne 2022’ will be free of charge and the event will be broadcasted live across the world on the Watch.Hockey platform. Ten teams from four continents, including some of the powerhouses of international hockey, will compete: Switzerland, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Poland (Men) and Switzerland, India, Poland, South Africa and Uruguay (Women).
Hockey5s is played with 5 athletes per team. It is particularly known for its non-stop end to end action, since the ball is in play for about 90% of a match, thanks to rebound-boards placed against the outside of the side-lines and back-lines. Furthermore, there are usually more goals with Hockey5s than with the more traditional 11-a-side format of hockey, since players can score from anywhere after the attacking line. Hockey5s is played on a smaller pitch, which enables to bring hockey to people in new and unexpected venues, sometimes even at the heart of the cities. Also, the match duration is shorter, with 2 halves of 10 minutes each.
Precisely, FIH Hockey5s Lausanne 2022 will be staged on the Place de la Navigation, an iconic location near the Lac Léman bordering the Olympic Capital.
Played in more than 70 countries in the world, Hockey5s was the most attended sport at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with no less than 200’000 spectators!
In 2019, in order to further boost the development of hockey globally through Hockey5s, the FIH Executive Board decided to create an FIH Hockey5s World Cup – with the inaugural edition planned in 2024 – and, in the near future, a Hockey5s World Tour, which will consist of events similar to Lausanne’s.
Commenting on FIH Hockey5s Lausanne 2022, FIH CEO Thierry Weil stated: “It was truly heart-breaking to have to postpone the inaugural event and I’d like to extend our sincerest thanks to the local authorities, in particular the City of Lausanne and the Canton of Vaud, for their continuous trust and support. Hockey5s is a great format to promote our sport and especially introduce it to sports fans not yet familiar with hockey. I invite everyone to come to this world event and enjoy the speed, skills and fun of our game!”
In an exclusive interview to FIH earlier this year, Swiss Women’s national team player Sae Fontana said she was “really excited about playing some of the best teams of the world! As early adopters of Hockey5s, we want to gain a competitive advantage, to get better rapidly, as a small country. Hockey5s is definitely a faster game, which makes it very intense as a player. Also, there are many more possibilities to score a goal, to get creative. The individual skills of each player are quite important, and there is more ball contact for each player since there are less players on the field of play.”
Reflecting on Hockey5s, South African coach Tsoanelo Pholo said in an exclusive interview to FIH: “Hockey5s [is] an initiator into hockey, a developer into the full field version. If you have a Hockey5s court in three or four places in the country, I’m telling you now, we are going to have way more hockey players in developing countries. That is a dream of the FIH, to ensure that we touch as many lives as we can with hockey. Because hockey has given me and so many others so much, I would love to see that opportunity be given to many other people, especially youth. I think it is going to grow massively in the smaller countries. I think that is exactly what Hockey5s is about.”
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