Champions Trophy Shifted to England

Published On: 10 March 2016

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has confirmed that the men’s Champions Trophy will take place at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in England from 10-17 June 2016.

The tournament has been relocated from Argentina, with the event set to provide nations with the last major hit-out before the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

As a result of the shift, hockey fans will now experience two weeks of international hockey back to back, with the women’s Champions Trophy taking place immediately afterwards, from 18-26 June.

This year’s men’s showcase event will see Australia, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, India and Korea go head to head as they battle it out to be crowned the best of the best as Hockey Champions Trophy winners.

The opening day of play sees hosts Great Britain, currently ranked fourth in the FIH World Rankings (based on England’s position), get their campaign started against the world’s top ranked team – reigning World Cup and World League champions Australia.

Some mouth-watering action then gets Saturday 11 June off to a flyer as reigning Olympic and defending champions Germany (ranked third) go head to head against Hero Hockey World League Final 2015 runners-up Belgium (ranked fifth).

Other schedule highlights include a rerun of the 2014 Hero Hockey Champions Trophy semi-final between Germany and Australia on Monday 13 June, before the all-Asian derby between 2014 Asian Games champions India (ranked seventh) and 2014 Champions Challenge winners Korea (ranked ninth) takes place the following day.

The round-robin games will conclude on Thursday 16 June before the classification games begin the next day, with the final taking place at 20:15 on Friday 17 June.

With the line-ups and location now set for both the men’s and women’s Hockey Champions Trophies, the stage is set for two truly epic competitions.

These will be the last major international hockey events before many of these teams meet again at the Rio 2016 Olympics. With the matches taking place in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, host of the 2012 Games, the Hockey Champions Trophy will officially kick off the sport’s Olympic celebrations.