2012–13 Women's FIH Hockey World League

2012–13 Women's
FIH Hockey World League

Tournament details
Teams	45
Venue(s)	13 (in 13 host cities)
Top three teams
Champions	Netherlands (1st title)
Runner-up	Australia
Third place	England
Tournament statistics
Matches played	182
Goals scored	917 (5.04 per match)
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The 2012–13 Women's FIH Hockey World League was the inaugural season of the FIH Hockey World League field hockey championship for women. The tournament started in August 2012 in Prague, Czech Republic and finished in December 2013 in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.^[1]

The Semifinals of this competition also served as a qualifier for the 2014 Women's Hockey World Cup as the 6 highest placed teams apart from the host nation and the five continental champions qualified.

The Netherlands won the tournament's Final round for the first time after defeating Australia 5–1 in the final match. England won the third place match by defeating host nation Argentina 4–2 on a penalty shootout after a 1–1 draw.^[2][3]

Qualification

Each national association member of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) had the opportunity to compete in the tournament, and after seeking entries to participate, 51 teams were announced to compete. However, for different reasons, the final count of participating teams was 45.^[4]

The 8 teams ranked between 1st and 8th in the FIH World Rankings current as of April 2011 received an automatic bye to the Semifinals while the 8 teams ranked between 9th and 16th received an automatic bye to Round 2. Those sixteen teams, shown with qualifying rankings, were the following:^[5]

•  Argentina (1)
•  Netherlands (2)
•  Germany (3)
•  China (4)
•  England (5)
•  Australia (6)
•  New Zealand (7)
•  South Korea (8)
•  Japan (9)
•  Spain (10)
•  India (11)
•  South Africa (12)
•  United States (13)
•  Azerbaijan (14)
•  Ireland (15)
•  Chile (16)

Schedule

Round 1

Dates	Location	Teams	Round 2 Quotas	Round 2 Qualifier(s)
14–19 August 2012	Prague, Czech Republic	Belarus  Czech Republic  France  Italy  Scotland  Turkey	4	Belarus  Italy  Scotland  Czech Republic
7–9 September 2012	Accra, Ghana	Ghana  Nigeria	1	Ghana
14–16 September 2012	Kuantan, Malaysia	Kazakhstan  Malaysia  Singapore  Sri Lanka	2	Malaysia  Kazakhstan
18–23 September 2012	Vienna, Austria	Austria  Belgium  Lithuania  Russia  Ukraine  Wales	4	Belgium  Russia  Ukraine  Austria
11–17 November 2012	Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago	Barbados  Canada  Guyana  Trinidad and Tobago  Uruguay  Venezuela	3	Canada  Uruguay  Trinidad and Tobago
8–15 December 2012	Suva, Fiji	Fiji  Papua New Guinea  Samoa  Vanuatu	1	Fiji

Round 2

Dates	Location	Teams Qualified			Semifinals Quotas	Semifinals Qualifiers
		Host	By Ranking	From Round 1
21–27 January 2013	Cape Town, South Africa	South Africa	Azerbaijan	Austria  Belgium  Ghana  Canada^1	2	South Africa  Belgium
18–24 February 2013	New Delhi, India	India	Japan	Fiji  Kazakhstan  Malaysia  Russia	2	India  Japan
25 February – 3 March 2013	Valencia, Spain	Spain	Ireland	Belarus  Ukraine^1  Czech Republic  Italy	2	Italy  Spain
4–10 March 2013	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Chile  United States	Scotland  Trinidad and Tobago  Uruguay	2	United States  Chile

^1 – Ukraine and Canada withdrew from participating.

Semifinals

Dates	Location	Teams Qualified			Final Quotas	Final Qualifiers
		Host	By Ranking	From Round 2
13–22 June 2013	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Netherlands	Germany  New Zealand  South Korea	Belgium  Chile  India  Japan	4	Germany  Netherlands  South Korea  New Zealand
22–30 June 2013	London, England	England	Argentina  Australia  China	Italy  South Africa  Spain  United States	3	Australia  England  China

Final

Dates	Location	Teams Qualified
		Host	From Semifinals
30 November – 8 December 2013	San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina	Argentina	Australia  China  England  Germany  South Korea  Netherlands  New Zealand

Final ranking

FIH issued a final ranking to determine the world ranking. The final ranking was as follows:^[6]

1.  Netherlands
2.  Australia
3.  England
4.  Argentina
5.  New Zealand
6.  China
7.  Germany
8.  South Korea
9.  Japan
10.  United States
11.  Belgium
12.  Italy
13.  South Africa
14.  India
15.  Spain
16.  Chile
17.  Malaysia
18.  Scotland
19.  Belarus
20.  Azerbaijan
21.  Uruguay
22.  Russia
23.  Ireland
24.  Austria
25.  Trinidad and Tobago
26.  Kazakhstan
27.  Ghana
28.  Czech Republic
29.  Brazil
30.  Fiji

References

1. "The Hockey World League 2012". FIH.ch. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
2. "Paumen inspires Netherlands to World League glory". FIH. 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2013-12-09.
3. "Hinch & Walton seal Bronze for England". FIH. 2013-12-08. Retrieved 2013-12-09.
4. "Line-up for World League Revealed". FIH. 2011-10-23. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
5. "Invitation letters sent for FIH World League". FIH. 2011-02-21. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
6. "FIH Women's World Rankings – 9 December 2013" (PDF). International Hockey Federation. FIH.ch. Retrieved 2014-03-24.