The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has announced that the 2015 Men’s Hockey World League Final will be hosted between 27 November and 6 December 2015 at Raipur Chhattisgarh. The event will be held at Raipur International Hockey Stadium. The Hockey stadium was dedicated to Hockey in August 2014.
The event will feature eight national Hockey teams: Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Argentina, host India and Canada. This will be the first International Hockey event to be staged in Chhattisgarh.
The Hockey World League Final will be an extremely exciting event with all eight teams qualified for 2016 Olympics. This will be one of the last opportunities to test themselves against one another in international competition before they head out for Rio for the Games later next year, said Mr. Leandro Negre, President of FIH.
He said that ‘India has a strong connection with Hockey and FIH is delighted to be taking the showcase competition to the city that has shown a great desire to host International hockey tournaments. We have no doubt that the local organizers and the people of Raipur will put on a fantastic event for athletes, spectators and TV viewers around the world.”
Chief Minister Dr. Raman Singh said that it is a proud moment for the people of Chhattisgarh. When we started work on the stadium the aim was to make world class stadium.” I welcome hockey fans from across the world and invite them to come and witness the exhilarating hockey set to be witnessed here in November and December”.
Dr. Narinder Dhruv Batra, President of Hockey India said it is a great news for the hockey fraternity. This will be a huge motivation not only for Hockey India but also for the officials of Raipur Stadium.