The 2026 Hockey Worlds in Belgium? An application has been submitted with the Netherlands
Belgium and the Netherlands have submitted a joint bid to organise, in 2026, the Women’s and Men’s Hockey World Cups. The FIH, the international hockey federation, announced it on Wednesday.
T he Belgian-Dutch candidacy proposes two sites, one in Wavre and the other in Amstelveen, to host the men’s and women’s tournaments together. South Africa, and the Potchefstroom site, offers the same possibility.
These two bids are the only ones where the two tournaments, which are held every four years, would be played in the same place and at the same time.
Australia, South Africa and Uruguay have applied for the women’s tournament only, while England, Germany and South Africa are offering to host the men’s tournament.
The choice will be made on November 3 at a meeting of the FIH Executive Board and announced the following day or two days later at a congress of the international federation.
The Red Lions, the Belgian men’s national team, are the reigning Olympic and world champions. They also won Euro 2019 in Antwerp.
Amstelveen is a world mecca for hockey, which will host this summer, jointly with Spain, the Women’s World Cup for the second time in its history after a first in 1986. The municipality in the south of Amsterdam has already hosted four times the men’s Euro (1983, 2009, 2017 and 2021), as many times the women’s edition (1995, 2009, 2017, 2021), a men’s World Cup (1973) and several editions of the Euro Hockey League, the main continental club competition.
For its part, Wavre must become the official stadium of the Red Lions and the Red Panthers. The end of the transformation work on the current Justin Peeters football stadium is expected for May 2023. Its normal configuration of 4,000 seats may be increased from time to time to 10,000 seats.
Belgium had already applied for the organization of the 2018 and 2023 Men’s World Cups, but the FIH had always preferred India and its more attractive financial proposals.
