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Ireland, Lithuania, Added to Champions Challenge for World Cup Qualification

Lithuania and Ireland will join the USA and India at February's Champions Challenge to determine the final two qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup.

The Champions Challenge, originally set to include England, Germany, Korea, South Africa, India and the United States, is scheduled for February 9-17 in Randburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. The dates of the tournament may now be expanded to include the two new teams.

Lithuania and Ireland were added to the Champions Challenge field following an International Hockey Federation Disciplinary Commission ruling on an appeal by the Lithuanian Hockey Federation. The Lithuanian protest arose from a penalty stroke dispute at the Women's World Cup Qualifier in September, 2001.

The Disciplinary Commission's ruling will now send the top two highest finishing teams between the U.S., India, Ireland and Lithuania to the World Cup, Nov. 26-Dec 8, 2002 in Perth, Australia. England, Germany, South Africa and Korea have already secured Wold Cup berths.

The USA and India were originally scheduled to meet to determine the final World Cup team after the United States was unable to attend the September World Cup Qualifier. The FIH ruled that the U.S. would still be able to qualify through a best-of-three series with the Qualifier's seventh-place team. India placed 7th at the Qualifier when Lithuania was declared withdrawn form the tournament.

However, Lithuania and Ireland were thrown into the mix of teams with uncertain World Cup plans with the Disciplinary Commission's Nov. 28 ruling in Brussels.

Lithuania protested a decision that ordered a replay of strokes during the crossover phase of the World Cup Qualifying Tournament.

Lithuania apparantly won the match against Ireland in a second round of penalty strokes, however a technical error in the penalty stroke procedure resulted in Ireland's protest of the game. The protest was upheld, and a replay of the second round of strokes was scheduled for the following day. When  Lithuania failed to report for the replay of strokes, the team was declared withdrawn from the tournament.

The disputed match took place in the crossover phase of the tournament that would decide the 5th-8th places at the tournament with the 5th-6th place teams joining the 1st, 2nds, 3rd and 4th place teams in advancing to the World Cup. The 7th place team was to play the United States in a best of three series to determine the final World Cup qualifier.

When Lithuania failed to report for the replay of the stroke competition, Ireland was awarded the game and advanced to the 5th/6th place game where it defeated Scotland, 2-1 in extra time. Scotland advanced to the game with a 2-1 extra time win over India.

Lithuania appeared on the field the following day for its 7th/8th place game against India, however, FIH rules state that a team failing to play or complete a match "shall be considered withdrawn from the tournament" and thereby forfeiting the remainder of its matches.

As a result, the 7th place position was awarded to India along with the opportunity to play the United States in the best-of-three series, while Lithuania's final standing in the tournament was stricken from the record.

The Disciplinary Commission  ruled as follows:

• Provided the hosts of the 1st Women’s Champions Challenge scheduled to be played in South Africa between 9th and 17th February 2002 are agreeable, that event be enlarged to 8 nations to enable the attendance of Lithuania and Ireland (USA and India were already scheduled to take part in the Champions Challenge).
  
• The 2 of these 4 teams with the highest positions at the conclusion of the tournament are deemed to have qualified for the 10th World Cup.
  
• In the event that either Lithuania or Ireland win the Champions Challenge neither qualify for the Champions Trophy. In that event the team ranked next after the classification matches qualifies for the Champions Trophy.
  
• FIH should pay the reasonable travel and accommodation costs of Ireland in attending that event and should pay 75% of the reasonable travel and accommodation costs of Lithuania.

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