FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup in Liège Canceled
by USA Field Hockey
LAUSANNE, Switzerland - It is with great regret that the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and Hockey Belgium are forced to cancel the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup Belgium 2022, which was scheduled to take place in Liège from February 2 to 6, 2022, after two years of intensive preparatory work.
The current health situation in Belgium, and more specifically the huge uncertainty that currently exists regarding the evolution of the Omicron variant, does not give enough guarantees to organize this World Cup in a safe and feasible way. After extensive consultations with and recommendation from all official and competent (health) authorities, it simply isn’t possible to allow 24 teams from all over the world to come to Liège for this event at the end of January.
Therefore, the Executive Boards of the FIH and Hockey Belgium have jointly and in full awareness of the situation taken the hard decision to cancel this major event. This has not been done lightly, but is the only possible decision.
FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: “The FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup is the pinnacle of indoor hockey. Therefore, considering all indoor hockey athletes and fans, it was extremely hard to cancel the 2022 edition planned in just a few weeks. But, of course, we have followed the recommendations of the local authorities. On behalf of FIH, I would like to extend our sincerest thanks to the Belgian organizers, and in particular the Belgian Hockey Association, for their tremendous preparation works and their great dedication.”
Hockey Belgium CEO Serge Pilet added: “We really believed in it, but unfortunately have to give in to the health situation and the official recommendations. I would like to explicitly thank the Province of Liège, sports minister Valérie Glatigny, Adeps and the National Lottery for their support until the end.”
Important: the people who had already bought tickets for this event will receive a full refund of these tickets in the coming weeks.