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FIH President Els van Breda Vriesman (r) and FIH Events Manager
Dennis Merredith announce the selections for the Federation's
upcoming events during a media conference in Perth
USA Shutout in Bid to Host 2006 World
Cup PERTH, Australia – U.S. Field Hockey’s bid to host the FIH Women’s World Cup will have to wait until 2010. The U.S was shutout in its attempt to host the 2006 edition of the sport’s premier event as the International Hockey Federation opted for Spain to host the next women’s World and Germany to host the 2006 men’s event. The announcement was made during the current World Cup, which concludes Sunday in Perth. U.S. Field Hockey had hoped to host the World Cup in the fall of 2006 at the U.S. Field Hockey National Training Center in Virginia Beach. The FIH Bid Evaluation Panel made the recommendations for awarding many of the international federation’s top events through 2006 before the FIH Executive Board ratified final the selections. The U.S. was in the running for the Women’s World Cup with Spain and Germany. “The bid evaluation process has been more open, rigorous and extensive than ever before,” said FIH President Els van Breda Vriesman in making the announcement. “I’m delighted to be able to say that the quality of bids received has also been the best yet. Every bid has achieved the FIH requirements for its major events.” van Breda Vriesman stated that although U.S. Field Hockey had submitted an excellent bid, the United States did not have a recent history of hosting top FIH events. “Two World Cup Qualifiers and the Olympic Games in the 90s seems like it might have been enough, but apparently they didn’t see it that way,” said U.S. Field Hockey President Sharon Taylor following the announcement. “We thought we had an excellent bid, and I still think we can do a tournament of this size and importance in Virginia Beach. Right now, we’ll have to take a look at it and see if there is something else we can do in the next 5-6 years and then maybe go for the one in 2010.” In addition to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the U.S. hosted a World Cup qualifier (Intercontinental Cup) for men in 1989, and hosted the women’s qualifier in Philadelphia in 1993. In winning their respective World Cup bids, Spain will host the women’s World Cup in Madrid, while Germany will host the men’s event at the new National Hockey Stadium in Monchengladbach.
In other bids awarded by the FIH, Catania, Italy
(women) and South Africa (men) earned the 2003 Champions Challenge tournaments , Rosario,
Argentina (women) and Lahore, Pakistan (men) earned the 2004 Champions Trophy
competitions. Canberra, Australia (women) and Chennai,
India (men) earned the 2005 Champions
Trophies and Santiago, Chile (women) and The Netherlands (men) were awarded the 2005
Junior World Cups. 2003 2004 2005 2005 2005 Junior World Cup 2006
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