How the hockey world ranking works
Why can one match move a hockey team up the world ranking?
Because the FIH ranking is a trade. Every official international match puts points on the table, and the winner takes them from the loser. What one team gains, the other loses, to the exact point.
How many points change hands depends on three things:
- the result: a win in normal time moves the most, a shoot-out win half as many, a draw only a few;
- who was expected to win: beating a team ranked above you is worth more, beating a team far below you is worth little or nothing;
- how big the match is: a World Cup or Olympic match is worth ten times a one-off test match.
So a team does not collect points for turning up. A team that keeps beating weaker sides barely moves; a team that upsets a stronger one jumps. And a big favourite that loses to a much weaker team drops sharply.
Every match counts the moment it ends. The FIH said when it launched the system that it would publish the table once a month.
The one thing to remember: hockey's ranking is an exchange. To rise, a team has to take points from someone else.
The formula
After each match, each team's points are updated by one sum:
Points after = Points before + R × W × I
The winner adds the result; the loser subtracts the same amount.
| Letter | What it is | Values |
|---|---|---|
| R | The result | 10 for a win, 5 for a shoot-out win, 1 for a draw |
| W | The weighting: how surprising the result was | 1 minus (winner's points minus loser's points) ÷ 1,000 |
| I | The importance of the match | 1 to 10, from the table below |
The weighting
The weighting compares the two teams' points before the match. If the lower-ranked team wins, the gap counts in its favour and W is above 1. If the higher-ranked team wins, W is below 1.
The FIH's own example: Team A has 500 points and Team B has 1,000. If A wins, W is 1 minus (500 minus 1,000) ÷ 1,000, which is 1.5. If B wins, W is 1 minus (1,000 minus 500) ÷ 1,000, which is 0.5.
The cap. When the gap before the match is more than 1,000 points, W is fixed: 2 if the lower-ranked team wins, 0 if the higher-ranked team wins. A heavy favourite that wins gains nothing, and the team it beat loses nothing. The FIH set the cap so that strong teams are not put off playing weaker ones, and weaker teams are not punished for playing them.
The importance of the match
| Match | Importance (I) |
|---|---|
| Olympic Games, World Cup | 10 |
| World Cup or Olympic qualifier, continental championship | 6 |
| FIH Pro League | 5 |
| Continental qualifier, continental championship division 2 | 3 |
| Invitational tournament of three or more teams, continental championship division 3 | 2 |
| One-off test match, continental championship division 4 | 1 |
There is no difference between continents: an Asian Games or EuroHockey match carries the same importance as any other continental championship. The FIH explains that the qualifiers and continental championships sit at 6 because they are the last routes to a World Cup or the Olympics.
Draws and shoot-outs
In a draw, the lower-ranked team gains a few points and the higher-ranked team loses the same number. R is 1, and W is worked out the other way round: 1 minus (the lower-ranked team's points minus the higher-ranked team's) ÷ 1,000.
A match decided by a shoot-out counts as a shoot-out win for the winner: R is 5, half a normal win.
A worked example
Made up to show the arithmetic. Team A has 2,400 points and Team B 2,800. They meet at the World Cup (I = 10).
| Result | Weighting (W) | Points exchanged (R × W × I) |
|---|---|---|
| A wins | 1 − (2,400 − 2,800) ÷ 1,000 = 1.4 | 10 × 1.4 × 10 = 140 |
| B wins | 1 − (2,800 − 2,400) ÷ 1,000 = 0.6 | 10 × 0.6 × 10 = 60 |
| A wins a shoot-out | 1.4 | 5 × 1.4 × 10 = 70 |
| Draw | 1.4 (A is the lower-ranked team) | 1 × 1.4 × 10 = 14, to A |
The same win by A in a one-off test match (I = 1) would be worth 14.
Which matches count
Every international match that the FIH sanctions, that is recorded on its Tournament Management System and that earns players an international cap. A match is either all of these or none: training matches and friendlies are not recorded and carry no points.
Starting points, new teams and zero
The system began on 1 January 2020 with each team's points from the old system. A team new to the table starts with 100 points, and every other team has 100 added, so the gaps and the order do not change. The same happens if a team falls to zero: no team goes below zero.
Great Britain
England, Scotland and Wales are ranked separately but play the Olympics as Great Britain. For a Great Britain match, the FIH works out the team's points from the home nations in proportion to how many players each has in the squad, and shares out the points won or lost the same way.
What the ranking is used for
The FIH uses it to seed teams into tournament pools (FIH Outdoor Tournament Regulations, appendices 4 to 6) and, for Los Angeles 2028, to share out places in the Olympic qualifiers between continents and to seed those qualifiers. The hockey qualification page explains how.
Where to see it
The FIH publishes the men's and women's tables on fih.hockey, under outdoor rankings.
Variations
| Ranking | Covered here |
|---|---|
| Outdoor (11-a-side), men and women | Yes |
| Hockey5s | No. The 2020 FAQ said a separate table was planned for 2022; not checked |
| Indoor | No. A separate table (2020 FAQ); not checked |
| The old tournament-based system (2003 to 2019) | No. Described in the FIH's 2014 explanatory note, kept in research for history |