Prescription for World Field Hockey

Recently I was reading a post on Facebook which was about the fact that Zambia have been unable to raise enough funds to compete at this years African Cup of Nations in Egypt, and also we have seen what I guess you could only describe as a one-sided Oceania Cup completed in Sydney where it was always going to be a Gold Medal final played out between the two power-houses of this federation Australia and New Zealand. Well all this got me thinking that perhaps something needs to change, and that perhaps the time has come for a more equal approach to the future of the game world-wide.

Now when the Hockey Pro League was first proposed I was a strong advocate for this, but I have since started to wonder if this is indeed a good think, because what it I think is actually doing is making sure that the powerful get more powerful, while, the weaker get weaker. I am starting to think the Pro League has been designed to make sure that the strong countries remain strong and keep all the power and control in the sport. Our sport should be aiming for it to be possible for every single country who plays the game to win the World Cup and Olympics and not just a select few which seems to current be the norm.

Therefore after some further thinking, I have come up with the following prescription for the future of World Field Hockey going forward-

- Scrap the Hockey Pro League, as this has clearly divided World Hockey with some people being for it while the majority are against it.

- Keep the World League but change the structure to the following-

Round 1: Regional/Zone Qualifiers

1. Pan America: 2 x Regional Zone Groups
1. North/Central America/Carribean Group
2. South America Group
2. Africa: 2 x Regional Zone Groups
1. Northern Africa Group
2. Southern Africa Group
3. Europe: 2 x European Zone Groups
1. Western European Group
2. Eastern European Group
4. Asia/Oceania: 2 x Regional Zone Groups
1. Northern Asia/Oceania Group
2. Southern Asia/Oceania Group

Round 2: Continental Federation Qualifiers/World Cup/Olympic Qualifer

1. Pan America Cup
2. African Cup of Nations
3. Asian/Oceania Cup
4. European Championships

Round 3: World Group Phase 1- Quarter Finals

1. World Group Q1
2. World Group Q2
3. World Group Q3
4. World Group Q4

Round 4: World Group Phase 2- Semi Finals

1. World Group S1
2. World Group S2

World League Final

- Every country would compete right from the start of the competition no matter what there ranking is

- In terms of the number of teams per group and how many go through to the next stage, I have not worked this out, right now this is just the bare bones.

- This competition would run over a 18 month cycle roughly

- The continental federation qualifiers would also be the world cup/olympic qualifiers and 4 spots would be given to each and this is the only way to make the Olympics or World Cup.

- I would merge Asia and Oceania together.

- Introduce a rolling four year International Hockey Calender like that which other sports have produced, this will include all International games, along with windows for the Domestic league etc, so that the best players are going back and playing in the domestic competition and for there clubs etc.

- Introduce an World equalisation fund, now this will be un-popular for some but anyway to bad it has to happen. The stronger Nations would contribute to this fund so much per year. Now how this fund works etc would need to be thrashed out.

Now I am sure this will get people going and get debate happen, I hope it does.