The 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup is right around the corner, and excitement is building as the world’s best teams prepare to battle it out on hockey’s biggest stage. To help you get ready, we have prepared a simple ‘Everything You Need To Know’ guide:
The 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup will be only the third time in the competition’s history that the Men’s & Women’s competitions are being held simultaneously in the same venues, offering fans a unique opportunity to support both teams at the same time.
2026 will also be our IRL Men’s first appearance at an FIH Hockey World Cup in eight years, and only the team’s fourth ever appearance at the competition since its inception in 1971.
Four our IRL Women it will be their seventh World Cup appearance, and third appearance in a row – a streak that began with the historic 2018 FIH Hockey World Cup Silver Medal, which remains the highest ever World Cup finish for an Irish Team, of any sport.
Not only that, both our IRL Men & Women will compete in the same stadiums, on the same days throughout their Pool C campaigns, meaning fans can support both teams by attending both games with a single ticket.
2026 will also be the first edition of the FIH Para Hockey World Cup which will feature our inspiring HockeyID team and will take place just a few minutes down the road in Louvain-La-Neuve.
Three Ireland Teams – One City – One Goal.
The World Cup is being hosted by both The Netherlands & Belgium from August 15 – 30, with each stage of the competition divided between the city of Amstelveen & Wavre.
Both the IRL Women & Men have been drawn in Pool C, meaning both will be situated in Wavre and will compete at the brand new Belfius Hockey Arena, and will play on August 16, 18, & 20. For the full schedule, scroll to the bottom of the page.
The teams will then be joined by our IRL HockeyID Team from August 20 as they begin their FIH Para Hockey World Cup campaign just a few minutes down the road at Louvain-La-Neuve Hockey Club, before completing their campaign at the Belfius Hockey Arena on August 24.
The final tournament will be played according to a new competition format. The countries will be divided into four groups of four. After the first group stage, the top two from each group will advance to a second group stage: the winners and runners-up from groups A and D will form the new group E. The same goes for groups B and C, which will form the new group F. Similar to the numbers one and two, the numbers three and four will also form new groups after the first group stage: groups G and H.
In this second group stage, each country plays two more matches, against the two ‘new’ countries in the group. The result achieved against the country already played in the first group stage also counts towards the final ranking in the new group. The best two teams from the new groups E and F advance to the semi-finals. The third and fourth-placed teams will play placement matches for rankings 5 to 8. The countries from groups G and H will compete for places 9 to 16.
Both in Wavre and Amsterdam, one semi-final for the men and one for the women will be played. This will naturally be followed by the finals: the women’s final in Amsterdam on Saturday 29 August, and the men’s final in Wavre on Sunday 30 August.
If you aren’t among the lucky ones who got their hands on tickets to join us in the Belfius Hockey Arena, you can still enjoy every moment of the 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup from home.
Fans based in the Republic of Ireland can enjoy every Ireland Women’s & Men’s match live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player.
Fans based in Northern Ireland and abroad can watch every moment live or on-demand on the FIH’s streaming platform, Watch.Hockey.
If you’re not able to watch the game in the moment, make sure to head over to Instagram and follow @IrelandHockeyTeam, the official account of our High-Performance Teams, for live updates, match clips, and more, and download the official FIH Hockey Scores Live App for real-time updates & statistics.
There are plenty of ways you can give our IRL Women and Men a boost from wherever in the world you are supporting from:
August 16 – 10:30 Irish Time – Ireland Men vs Australia
August 16 – 19:30 Irish Time – Ireland Women vs Spain
August 18 – 10:00 Irish Time – Ireland Women vs New Zealand
August 18 – 16:00 Irish Time – Ireland Men vs South Africa
August 20 – 16:00 Irish Time – Ireland Men vs Spain
August 20 – 20:30 Irish Time – Ireland vs Belgium
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