Hockey: Rule changes present new challenges

Published on 24/07/2012 01:21

SCOTLAND coaches, Gordon Shepherd (women) and Derek Forsyth (men) will face a new challenge in the first round of the inaugural World League in September.

The International Hockey Federation have issued an update to the tournament regulations which alters the points system immediately after the end of the Olympic Games.

Instead of the traditional points allocation for a win (3 points), draw (1), defeat (0), the draw has been eliminated as a final result, and this will apply to the first two rounds of the Waorld League. Now, if the teams finish level in any pool match, there will be a penalty shoot-out. The winner will gain two points and the loser only one point.

Five players will each take on the goalkeeper of the opposite side, with eight seconds only to put the ball in the net. If that also ends in a draw, the same five players enter a sudden-death format to decide the winner. Should the goalkeeper commit an accidental foul, that penalty is retaken, but an intentional infringement will result in a penalty stroke, taken by the same attacker.

The FIH have also increased the playing squad for each match from 16 to 18 players, of whom two must be goalkeepers, and introduced an “own goal” should the ball come off the stick or body of a defender inside the scoring circle.