Wikipedia

Draft:World Masters Hockey

World Masters Hockey is often abbreviated to Masters and/or Masters Hockey and is the term for a division of Field hockey where senior hockey players (men and women) compete on international level from the age of 35. The organization direct responsible is officially known as World Masters Hockey Ltd (WHM).[1] WMH organizes both outdoor and indoor Field Hockey World Championship and Continental Championship tournaments for senior teams.[2] "Senior" refers to that all players are aged 35 and above. National teams represent their countries, with a subset division where beside National formatted teams also teams featuring mixed players from multiple nationalities can compete.

Governing Body

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WHM is the exclusive governing body for Masters Hockey, officially recognized by the International Hockey Federation (FIH] as the sole authority for organizing and managing all official Masters Hockey tournaments worldwide.[3] The FIH has a pyramid structure[4] in which the Masters Hockey is the WMH responsibility. The WMH organization was formed as a result of the merger between the International Masters Hockey Association (IMHA)[5] and the World Grand Masters Association (WGMA),[6] following a request from FIH in 2012 to unify these bodies into a single entity. FIH supports this unification, seeing it as a strategic move to strengthen the global hockey brand, enhance its commercial prospects, and streamline the natural progression from Junior to Senior to Masters Hockey.

How countries relate to the organization

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Countries have a Masters subsidiary, often affiliated with its National Hockey Association (as example in the Netherlands the International Hockey Federation has affiliate the Royal Dutch Hockey Association (KNHB) which has two Clubs organizing the Masters Hockey,[7] in their name: Masters Hockey Nederland (MHN[8]) and Nederlandse Hockey Club de Zestiplussers (NHC60[9]), they handle the representing organization and team selection.

Championships on multiple continents

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The WMH invites their members,[10] the countries Masters Associations representatives to organise World and Continental Championships and other events. They follow a bid procedure after which the WMH grands the organization to the best bid. Since there can enroll over 230 teams for a World Championship often the Championship is shared over two or more countries which can be on different continents as well as on different dates. The same applies to Continental tournaments The WMH officials govern the tournaments for which there are very strict rules, following the FIH rules as much as possible. In 2023 the Continental Cup Women over 40 in Asia was won by the Singapore Ladies[11] At the indoor World Championship the first Asian and Sikh female hockey player 'Sandeep Maan' to represent England at the Masters. She hopes that she "can be an inspiration for ethnic minority to budding hockey stars".[12]

Senior Age groups

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The FIH states "no matter what your age or ability is playing at all age levels is one of the cornerstones of the International Hockey Federation's (FIH) Hockey Revolution strategy".[13] Teams are grouped in 5 year age differences, starting from 35 all the way up to over 80. So 35-39 is an age group, and so is 40-44, 45-49, etc. The age of a player for his/her group allocation is calculated by the year in which the tournament takes place minus the contender's year of birth. Example: Tournament in (June) 2026, player is born in 1963, age is 63 (even when he/she is born in december), Age group is 60-64.

Volunteers

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The events are governed by large groups of volunteers (residing under the organizing country and the WMH), all paying for most of the expenses themselves. Players also absorb the costs for participation, travel and hotels, occasionally helped by minor sponsoring.

Match results data

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All countries, players and matches are tagged and followed in the Data tracking system named Altisurt[14] providing a live match result as well as a backlog to statistics of previous matches, teams and players.

Teams

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Teams in Masters Championships matches can consist in either 2 goalkeepers and 16 field players or 1 goalkeeper and 15 field players.

Tournaments

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2024, 2025

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During the World Cup 2024 (taking place in Cape Town[15][16] and Auckland[17]) approximately 220 teams are participating. Combined with staff and the organizing officials and umpires more than 4.500 people are active at the Championship tournaments.

European Championships 2025 will be held in Nottingham, Valencia and Dusseldorf.

Tournaments over the years

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References

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  1. ^ "World Masters Hockey – Masters hockey for men and women around the world". Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  2. ^ "Template National Association Regulations Implementing the Requirements of the FIH Regulations In Sanctioned and Unsanctioned Events 2020 edition" (PDF). About FIH official documents FIH-membership. FIH. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  3. ^ "WMH Events". World Masters Hockey. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  4. ^ "FIH Sanctioned and Unsanctioned Events Regulations.pdf" (PDF). FIH Our Official Documents (Official FIH Regulations/Documents) (Version 3.1 ed.). FIH. 1 May 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  5. ^ "Field Hockey". International Masters Games Association. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  6. ^ "What is WGMA". World Grand Masters Association. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  7. ^ "KNHB Masters Hockey". KNHB. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  8. ^ https://www.mastershockey.nl/
  9. ^ https://nhc60.weebly.com/
  10. ^ "WMH Member Associations – World Masters Hockey".
  11. ^ "History makers: inaugural Singapore Women's Masters Hockey team crowned Asian champions". The Hockey Paper. 9 December 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  12. ^ Howard, Laura (19 June 2024). "First Asian and Sikh female hockey player to represent England at Masters level". The Hockey Paper. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  13. ^ "Masters hockey flourishing on the world stage". International Hockey Federation. Spain: FIH. 26 June 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
  14. ^ https://masters.altiusrt.com/
  15. ^ "World Cup Cape Town". WMH Events. WMH. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  16. ^ "World Masters Hockey World Cup". City of Cape Town. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  17. ^ "World Cup Auckland". WMH Events. WMH. 20 September 2024. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  18. ^ "Masters Hockey World Cup 2022". SA Masters Hockey. South Africa Masters Hockey. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  19. ^ "WMH announces dates and venues". Nottingham Hockey Centre. 9 April 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  20. ^ "Tilburg hosts World Grand Masters Tournament". Hockey.nl. 16 June 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
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