Pakistan Hockey Team Qualifies for World Cup 2018

Pakistan Hockey Team has qualified for the Men’s World Cup Hockey 2018, which is going to be held in Bhubaneshwar, India from 28 November to 16 December 2018.

Pakistan is the 13^th team to have qualified for the mega event, while three places are still to be filled in.

The continental qualifiers gain an automatic qualification to the event, but thanks to the semi-finalists of Rabobank EuroHockey Championships – Germany, England, Netherlands, and Belgium as they have already qualified for the grand event due to their top 5 finish in Hockey World League Semi-Finals – Pakistan has won a spot in the next year’s event.

Pakistan men have qualified for the #HWC2018 following confirmation of the Semi-Finals of the #EHC2017 🏆 Read more: https://t.co/rK6hOYzr1v pic.twitter.com/JLVAUhMxnW

— International Hockey Federation (@FIH_Hockey) August 23, 2017

Pakistan is the only team to have won the World Cup title four times. However, Pakistan was unable to make it to the Rabobank Hockey World Cup 2014, which was a shocking news, not just for Pakistan but for the world hockey as well.

Other Qualifying Teams

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain and New Zealand have already qualified for the World Cup along with the host nation India – host team gets an automatic qualification for the event.

How it Happened

Pakistan, ranked 13^th, is quite fortunate to have qualified for the finals in Bhubaneshwar as it had finished 7^th in the Hockey World League Semi-Finals London. This is because the other potential candidate for the spot is the lower ranked France (ranked 16^th), which also finished 7th in the Hockey World League Semi-Finals Johannesburg.

Pakistan had to wait (and pray) for the semi-finalists in the EuroHockey Championship, and the luck favored Pakistan this time around.