Muscat: The organising committee of the 2024 FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier – Muscat will unveil the details of the Olympic Qualifier event at Oman Hockey Stadium in Al Amerat on Sunday in a press meet.
Muscat is among the three cities worldwide to host one of the Hockey Olympic Qualifiers, besides Valencia (Spain) and Ranchi (India). In Muscat, eight teams will vie for the three direct spots to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris from January 15 to 21. Pool A will comprise Great Britain, Malaysia, Pakistan and China, while Pool B will feature Germany, New Zealand, Canada and Chile teams. FIH decided to move the hosts of the Hockey Olympic Qualifier from Pakistan to Oman after the Oman Hockey Association (OHA) delivered a comprehensive and strong bid that featured sporting infrastructure, including the newly built stadium and its relevant top sporting facilities.
Hosting of the 2024 FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier – Muscat is a good rehearsal for the organising committee ahead of the main hosts represented by FIH Hockey 5s World Cup - Oman 2024, which will be hosted from January 24 to 31 at Oman Hockey Stadium in the presence of 32 teams around the world.
On the other hand, Dato Tayyab Ikram, FIH President, will arrive in Muscat on Sunday and be one of the speakers during the press conference. He will highlight the importance of the Hockey Olympic Qualifier event and Oman’s readiness to host the international mega-events.
The 2024 FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier event will begin on Monday with four matches. Germany's team will take on Canada in the opener at 14:00, and New Zealand and Chile will follow this match. Then, Malaysia will play against China, and Great Britain will face Pakistan. The group matches will begin on Monday and will run until Thursday. On Saturday, the semifinal matches and classification matches will take place, while on the following day, the final match and the bronze match will decide the three top winners.