LAUSANNE: Belgium and the Netherlands will jointly host the 2026 women's and men's hockey World Cups simultaneously, the game's governing body FIH said on Friday.
The decision was taken during the virtual meeting of the Executive Board under the chairmanship of FIH Acting President Seif Ahmed.
"The combined event will take place in July or August 2026 in Amsterdam/Amstelveen, Netherlands and Wavre, Belgium, with female and male teams playing in both venues," the International Hockey Federation said in a statement.
Commenting on the decision, FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: "On behalf of FIH, I would like to thank wholeheartedly all National Associations that submitted a bid. We received excellent proposals and it was therefore a particularly challenging task to decide."
"We're very much looking forward to working with the National Associations of the current Women's and Men's World and Olympic Champions, the Netherlands and Belgium respectively, that will undoubtedly put together outstanding World Cups."
The Executive Board received a comprehensive report on the FIH finances.
Thanks to additional income and reduced expenses, the final operational profit for 2022 is expected to be higher than the budgeted amount.
The FIH Hockey Pro League operational result is also positive.
For 2023, the budget has been approved by the EB.
The expected FIH financial result is an operational profit thanks, to a large extent, to the upcoming FIH Hockey Men's World Cup in India.
The EB also confirmed that the winners of the FIH Hockey Pro League in season 5 (2023/2024) and season 6 (2024/2025) will directly qualify for the 2026 FIH Men's and Women's World Cups.
If the winner of season 6 is already qualified in season 5, the runner-up in season 6 will be offered the direct qualification place.
The next meeting of the FIH Executive Board will take place on January 28 next year.