International Hockey Federation

The International Hockey Federation (Fédération Internationale de Hockey sur Gazon, or FIH) is the global governing body for the sport of field hockey, which is known simply as hockey in many countries.

The FIH was founded in January 7, 1924 in Paris by Paul Léautey, who became the first president, in response to hockey's omission from the programme of the 1924 Summer Olympics. The 7 founding members were Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Spain and Switzerland. The FIH soon grew to have many members and achieve international recognition. In 1982, the FIH merged with the IFWHA (International Federation of Women's Hockey Associations), which had been founded in 1927 by Australia, Denmark, England, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, the United States and Wales.

The FIH works in cooperation with regional governing bodies, African Hockey Federation, Asian Hockey Federation, European Hockey Federation, Oceania Hockey Federation and Pan American Hockey Federation to promote and develop the sport.

The organisation is based in Lausanne since 2005, having moved from Brussels.

Member Associations

Today, the FIH consists of five continental associations and 116 member associations. Geographically, there are 16 from Africa, 30 from Asia, 40 from Europe, 8 from Oceania and 22 from the Americas.

The world ranking is used to determined the seeded entries for the international field hockey tournaments including qualification tournament, and the previous four years' international results are used in the points calculation.

Below are the tournaments whose results are used for the points calculation:
*Olympic Games
*World Cup
*Champions Trophy
*Champions Challenge
*Continental federation Championships

If the main tournament has a qualification tournament, its results will also be used in the ranking:
*25 percent of total points won in year one
*50 percent of total points won in year two
*75 percent of total points won in year three
*100 percent of total points won in year four
*Continental championships based on the final placing

For continental championships points, because Asian, European and Oceania have a higher overall standard of competition, they awarded 500 points for the first place finisher as opposed to African and Pan American which are only awarded 375 points for first place finisher. Lower places may also receive different numbers of ranking points.

ee also

*Hockey Rules Board

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.worldhockey.org/ Official Website]