Karachi (Web Desk): Green Shirts has qualified for World Cup 2018 despite the poor show in Hockey World League due to the results of the ongoing European Hockey Championship.
National hockey team currently holding the 14th position in the world rankings – finished seventh in the FIH Hockey World League semi final, held in London, and anxiously waited to see if their performance was good enough to let them be a part of the blue riband event.
f85c18c97bbc3763642c43e4793f57faPakistan have become the 13th team to qualify for next year's global showpiece, joining host nation India, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain, and New Zealand.
The results of the EuroHockey Championship, currently taking place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, have been quite in favour of Pakistan, with all four of the semi-finalists having already qualified for the World Cup via the Hockey World League route.
The team that wins its continental qualifier automatically qualifies for the World Cup, the Fédération Internationale de Hockey's (International Hockey Federation/FIH) rules suggest.
However, the semi-finals of the European continental qualifier will be contested by Germany, England, Netherlands, and Belgium, all of whom have already achieved the World Cup qualification berth thanks to the top five finishes in the Hockey World League semifinals.
Therefore, the World Cup ticket goes to the highest-placed finisher from the Hockey World League semifinals that have not already achieved World Cup qualification. Pakistan is the higher-ranked of the two seventh-place finishers from Hockey World League semifinal events that took place in London and Johannesburg.
