The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has named Oman as Pakistan's replacement for the upcoming Men's Junior Hockey World Cup that is set to held. The tournament will go on from November 28 to December 10 in Chennai and Madurai. Following Pakistan's late withdrawal from the competition, Oman was included as they are the next highest-ranked team in the continental championship (Junior Asia Cup 2024).
A total of 24 will be playing in the tournament. Earlier, Pakistan was placed in Group B alongside India, Chile and Switzerland, but Oman will now be taking their spot.
"Pakistan Hockey Federation had notified the International Hockey Federation (FIH) that they have not accepted the invitation to participate in the upcoming FIH Hockey Men's Junior World Cup Tamil Nadu 2025, after their team had qualified for this event at the Asia Junior Cup last year," FIH said in a statement.
“For the very first time, the FIH Hockey Junior World Cups 2025, women and men, will involve 24 teams each, enabling greater accessibility to FIH events, which is one of the fundamental principles of the FIH Empowerment and Engagement strategy,” the statement further read.
Pool A: Canada, Germany, Ireland, South Africa
Pool B: Chile, India, Oman, Switzerland
Pool C: Argentina, China, Japan, New Zealand
Pool D: Belgium, Egypt, Spain, Namibia
Pool E: Austria, England, Malaysia, Netherlands
Pool F: Australia, Bangladesh, France, Korea
Pakistan withdraws for the second time
This is the second hockey tournament in India that Pakistan has withdrawn from as they had earlier opted to not participate in the Men's Asia Cup that was held in Rajgir, Bihar and were replaced by Bangladesh. The withdrawal from the tournament cost Pakistan big time as they weren't able to find a spot for the next year's World Cup. Notably, the competition was a qualifying round for the mega tournament next year.
Who won the previous edition?
Meanwhile, the previous edition of the men's Junior Hockey World Cup that took place in 2023 and was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was won by Germany. It remains to be seen which team will come out on top in the upcoming edition of the tournament.