The FIH Pro League is the latest big-ticket tournament in the international hockey calendar.
Started in 2019 with a men’s and a women’s version, the FIH Pro League invites the nine of the best teams from around the world to compete.
In the 2019 edition, each team played 14 league matches, with the top-four advancing to the semi-finals and the winner was determined by a final.
The Netherlands won the inaugural women’s FIH Pro League, beating Australia in a penalty shoot-out in the final.
Australia won the first men’s FIH Pro League after defeating Belgium 3-2 in the final.
Starting with the 2020-21 season, the FIH Pro League follows a round-robin format where each team plays the other team twice - home and away - and the team with the most points after 16 league matches is declared the champion.
In the 2020-21 season, a number of matches were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and so, a points percentage system was used to determine the winner.
In the FIH Pro League, a team is awarded three points for a win and one point for a draw. Any match that ends in a draw moves to a penalty shoot-out, with the winners of the penalty shoot-out getting a bonus point.
A team’s points percentage was calculated by dividing their points total against the total points available.
Belgium were declared the 2020-21 men’s FIH Pro League winners, with a points percentage of 76.19 (having won 32 of the 42 points in the 14 matches they played).
The Netherlands won their second women’s FIH Pro League title in 2020-21, having won 88.9 per cent of their total points (they won 32 points out of 36 in their 12 matches).
The Indian men’s hockey team made its FIH Pro League debut in the 2020-21 season, finishing in fourth place with a points percentage of 62.5. In the FIH Pro League 2021-22, they finished a credible third.
The India women’s hockey team made an impressive debut in the FIH Pro League in the 2021-22 season.