Lausanne, Switzerland: With the FIH Hockey Pro League 2022/23 season coming to an end earlier this week, we take a look at the impact the ups and downs of the season have had on the outdoor hockey world rankings.
In the FIH Men’s World Rankings, Netherlands (3133) have pulled away from Belgium (2918) and consolidated their hold on the top spot. The two teams were separated by a mere 2 points two months back, but Netherlands impressive run of victories in the FIH Hockey Pro League, including two back-to-back wins over Belgium in their final two games sees them create breathing room at the top.
Great Britain’s brilliance throughout the season of the FIH Hockey Pro League, which saw them finish second, featured a majority of English players and with the unique method baked into the world rankings system to fairly allocate the points to each representative nation, England (2761) have now moved up to third place, a mere 15 points ahead of India (2746)!
Germany’s (2680) performances after their World Cup title have seen them slip down the rankings. The world champions were ranked number one at the end of January, but having used the Pro League to blood new young talent, they produced their lowest average points total in the tournament, which sees them ranked fifth in the world.
Australia (2608), much like Germany, also used the opportunity provided by the FIH Hockey Pro League to give international experience to young players, and finished in the seventh place this season, which is their lowest finish ever. This sees their ranking fall to sixth in the world, having started the year ranked first!
Spain (2466), Argentina (2350) and Korea (2042) remain in the seventh, eighth and ninth positions respectively. New Zealand (1876) had a disappointing FIH Hockey Pro League season, finishing in the bottom spot with 3 points from their 16 games, and have now been relegated for the next season. While they started the season inside the top-10, they have now slipped back to twelfth in the world behind Malaysia (1953) in tenth and France (1932) in eleventh.
–FIH
