FIH prefers ‘the Netherlands’ to host Hockey World Cup 2014
The ongoing struggle between England and the Netherlands to host the Hockey World Cup 2014 has ended with the announcement of International Hockey Federation (FIH) at Congress and Forum in Montreux, Switzerland, allowing the Dutch to organize the event.
Netherlands' bid overwhelmed England's offer to host the men's and women's hockey World Cups in 2014. The duo countries beseeched the International Hockey Federation to organize world events in their prescribed venues.
The men's and women's Hockey World Cup occurs after every four years. The upcoming event will be played from June 02 to 15 at ‘The Hague’ hockey stadium in Netherlands, in 2014.
Netherlands hosted the men's and women's hockey tournaments at Utrecht in 1998 too. England organized the men's hockey world cup in 1986 at Willesden.
The Chief Executive of England Hockey, Sally Munday, said, “This is a real disappointment for hockey in England. We thought that London's bid offered a wonderful chance to engage more than 0.6 million viewers, who are going to attend the hockey matches in World Cup 2014”.
The England Hockey Chief Executive, declaring it a great setback, stated that they would now focus more on winning the title in the tournament. It was great shock for England Hockey Board (EHB) as they had hired the services of great boxing promoter, Frank Warren in this regard.
Hoping to host other international events in the future, she said that hockey is vastly played in the Netherlands and they would surely stage a successful event as they have experience of organizing world class events.
The President of International Hockey Federation (FIH), Leandro Negre, said that it was an extremely difficult decision to grant the tournaments as the bids from England and the Netherlands were very competitive.
Leandro further said, "It was a very close decision, but we congratulate the Netherlands, who will surely organize a memorable dual World Cup tournament. The bid of England has impressed us and we are interested to provide other opportunities to London."
The English men and women hockey teams are currently ranked at the fourth and fifth best in the world respectively, while the Netherlands' squads are ranked at third and second respectively.
England was defeated by the Netherlands in the match for third place at the Hockey World Cup 2010, held in New Delhi. However the English squad won the silver medal in the Champions Trophy while their women's team acquired bronze medals in the two events.
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