With the FIH Hockey Pro League back in full swing and heading into the business end of the season, the action on the field has major implications off the field! While the points table of the league sees constant change with each match, the results also impact the world rankings significantly. With the 2022/23 season at its half-way mark, here is a look at how the teams are faring on the overall world rankings. 

 

In the FIH Men's World Rankings, Netherlands (2848) are currently the top ranked team in the world with Belgium (2846) just 2 points behind in the second position! Both teams were benefactors of Germany losing points during the Rourkela mini-tournament of the FIH Pro League. Neither team has been involved in international matches since the World Cup, but have plenty of matches left in season 4 of the Pro League having played just 4 of their 16 matches so far. 

 

Germany’s (2752) skid ended at the end of the Rourkela mini-tournament and saw them drop to third place in the world rankings, while India (2689) ended the Rourkela leg with a near perfect record, winning three games outright and one in the shoot-outs, which took them to the fourth spot in the world rankings. 

 

Great Britain’s brilliance in the recently concluded Christchurch mini-tournament 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 (2605) leapfrog Australia into fifth place. Australia (2571) are ranked sixth in the world with rapidly improving performances from a young team, which saw them register two outright wins and a shoot-out win in the Christchurch mini-tournament. 

 

Argentina (2269),  Spain (2251) and Korea (1942) remain in the seventh, eighth and ninth positions respectively. New Zealand (1823) faced four losses in a row at the hands of Australia and Great Britain, which sees them drop out of the top-10, into the eleventh place, with Malaysia (1853) rounding out the top-10.

 

In the FIH Women’s World Rankings, Netherlands (3299) remain at the top of the table, continuing to maintain their huge lead over Argentina (2740) in second place. Australia (2610) have continued their terrific start to their Pro League campaign and are now the league leaders, having registered three wins in the four matches at Christchurch. 

 

With the vast majority of the Great Britain players coming from England, they are the big beneficiaries of the results from the Christchurch mini-tournament. Great Britain won three of their four matches, which brought them much required points after starting the season with four consecutive losses. These results see England (2413) move above Germany into fourth place in the world rankings. 

 

A little over 100 points separate teams from the fifth to seventh positions, with Germany (2360) in fifth, Belgium (2257) in sixth and Spain (2257) in seventh. Belgium and Spain are separated by less than half a point as things stand! 

 

India (2186), China (1914) and New Zealand (1877) close out the top-10 positions, with India last featuring in the Nations Cup where they finished as champions, securing a place in the FIH Hockey Pro League for the 2023/24 season. New Zealand began the home mini-tournament at Christchurch in the ninth position, but four losses on the trot sees them drop down to tenth place and in serious threat of relegation in the FIH Hockey Pro League as well. 

 

To see the complete FIH World Rankings, please click here.

 

The rankings calculations model that FIH introduced on 1st January 2020 moved away from the previous tournament-based rankings system to a dynamic, match-based method where opposing teams exchange points in official, FIH sanctioned games. The number of points exchanged depends on the result of the match, the relative ranking of the teams and the importance of the match. More information about the new rankings model can be found below. 

 

How the FIH World Rankings work:

The number of points exchanged depends on the result of the match, the relative ranking of the teams and the importance of the match. 

 

FIH World Rankings explained:

  • Based on the Elo rating system, which is used as the basis of many other sports ranking systems 
  • When two nations play against each other, a number of ranking points are exchanged between them 
  • In every match, the number of points gained by one team is exactly matched by the number of points lost by the other
  • Teams will win more points for beating teams ranked above them, and therefore teams will lose more points for losing to a team ranked below them 
  • Teams will win less points for beating teams ranked below them, and therefore teams will lose less points for losing to a team ranked above them
  • If a draw occurs, the lower ranked team will gain a small number of points and the higher ranked team will lose the same number of points 
  • The number of points exchanged is dependent on the result of the match (win, lose, shootout win/loss or draw), the importance of the match (part of a major tournament, or a test series for example), and the relative difference in ranking points between the teams before the match. 

 

More details about the formula used in the algorithm, weightings of matches and other factors can be found HERE together with a Frequently Asked Questions document HERE.