We nonetheless have just a few years to sit up for, but it surely’s already on the agenda. The 2026 double World Cup can be held within the Netherlands and Belgium, the FIH world hockey affiliation introduced on Thursday.
Will probably be the sixth time {that a} hockey World Cup is held in our nation. Additionally in 1973, 1986, 1998, 2014 and 2022 a world remaining match was accomplished inside our nationwide borders. Final summer season, the Netherlands organized the World Cup for girls along with Spain. Belgium is the primary accomplice with which the KNHB organizes a double World Cup, which additionally takes place in the summertime.
The Dutch a part of the match can be held within the Wagener Stadium, which the affiliation wish to additional modernize. Wavre – close to Brussels – is the Belgian taking part in location. A model new hockey stadium can be constructed there within the subsequent 4 years.
‘Our nations don’t solely border on one another, we additionally each have the identical hockey local weather with implausible associations and plenty of enthusiastic hockey followers,’ Erik Gerritsen, common supervisor of the KNHB, responds to the information. ‘The journey distance between the 2 stadiums is just two hours, which signifies that groups and followers in Belgium and the Netherlands can expertise an excellent match with equal consideration for each the women and the boys at each areas. We’re trying ahead to.’
The Orange girls with the World Cup cup, final summer season in Terrassa. Picture: Willem Vernes
‘Unprecedented hockey celebration’
This additionally applies to Serge Pilet, the CEO of the Belgian hockey federation. “With the success of the final European Championships (2017 and 2021 in Amsterdam, 2019 in Antwerp) and of the Girls’s World Cup 2022 (Amsterdam) in thoughts, we’re firmly satisfied that this World Cup will as soon as once more be an unforgettably spectacular and modern occasion. can be. Within the middle of hockey-crazed Europe and with the well-known quite a few and loud followers of the Orange Legion and the Pink Tribe , this World Cup can be an unprecedented hockey celebration. We’re already going to work laborious.’
In June, the KNHB launched the mixed World Cup bid . South Africa was the one different celebration that wished to prepare a doubles match. Different nations, comparable to Australia, England and Wales and Uruguay hoped for a ‘single World Cup’.
The Orange Girls defend their world title within the Low International locations match, which they’ve received 3 times in a row. The Dutch males need to make one other shot on the World Cup gold in India in January, which they final conquered in 1998.
