What is FIH PRO LEAGUE?
It is an International Hockey Federation. The FIH Hockey Pro League – “Hockey at its Best!” – is an annual global League involving hockey’s best national teams in the world, Men and Women.
The best team of the season – having accumulated the highest number of points at the end of the League – is crowned Champion and receives the coveted FIH Hockey Pro League Trophy.
Who founded FIH League?
FIH was founded on 7 January 1924 in Paris by Paul Léautey, who became the first president, in response to field hockey’s omission from the programme of the 1924 Summer Olympics. The first members complete to join the seven founding members were Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Spain, and Switzerland.
History of FIH League?
In response to field hockey’s exclusion from the 1924 Summer Olympics’ schedule, Paul Léautey, who would go on to become the organization’s first president, created the FIH on January 7, 1924, in Paris. Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Spain, and Switzerland were the first nations to formally join the seven founding nations.
In 1982, the FIH merged with the International Federation of Women’s Hockey Associations (IFWHA), which had been founded in 1927 by Australia, Denmark, England, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, the United States, and Wales.
The organisation has been based in Lausanne, Switzerland since 2005, having moved from Brussels, Belgium.
In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the FIH banned Russia from the 2022 Women’s FIH Hockey Junior World Cup, and banned Russian and Belarusian officials from FIH events.
Facts and figures:
- 9 women’s teams
- 9 men’s teams
- 144 FIH Hockey Pro League matches altogether (per season)
- That means there are 144 FIH Pro League matches altogether
Matches will be played in “mini-tournaments” beginning with the 2022–23 season, where multiple teams will assemble in one location to play two matches against one another. Additionally, for the first time ever, the team that finishes worst will be demoted at the end of the season and replaced by the victor of the FIH Hockey Nations Cup. This means that each and every game and point counts!
Previous winners:
- 2019: Netherlands (Women) and Australia (Men)
- 2020-21: Netherlands (Women) and Belgium (Men)
- 2021-22: Argentina (Women) and Netherlands (Men)
