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Hockey India League: Federation President Dilip Tirkey said during the ongoing Men Asia Cup in Rajgir (Bihar) that there will be at least four teams in women and eight teams in men..
Hockey India League: Hockey India League (HIL) The next edition of will be held in January 2026 at three places instead of two. This information was given by Federation President Dilip Tirkey on Sunday. Hockey India (HI) top official said that men’s Hockey India League (HIL) The competition of eight teams will remain, but six teams can participate in the women’s competition instead of the current four. He also said that two teams – Gonasika (men) and Odisha Warriors (2025 female champions) have withdrawn the name from the competition after just one season citing personal reasons. HIL will be held in both male and female classes. Most of the men will be the same teams, except Gonasika, who had withdrawn due to personal reasons and we will soon announce their replacement. Federation President Dilip Tirkey said during the ongoing Men Asia Cup in Rajgir (Bihar) that there will be at least four teams among women and eight teams in men.
The number of women’s teams will be six
Tirkey said that we were considering increasing the number of women’s teams to six, the conversation is going on. This time there will be three venues in three different cities-two existing cities will remain and one will be added. There will be a competition between Odisha between Rourkela and Bhubaneswar. The HI chief also said that he plans to take HIL to North India in future. A proposal came from Punjab and we also wanted to take HIL to North India, but after analyzing, we felt that there will be fog problems in places like Chandigarh and Mohali in January. We will see in future. Federation President Dilip Tirkey also informed that all the players playing in the previous HIL have been paid. Odisha Warriors delayed the players in paying, so we paid them on their behalf after talking to them. Odisha Warriors were champions among women, so we had their prize money and we paid from there after taking their approval.
Players will be auctioned for HIL
He also informed that there will be a small auction for next year’s Hockey India League (HIL) in the late September or the first week of October. Players of Odisha Warriors will be auctioned. Gonasika players will also be auctioned. Some franchisees have retained some players and some have released some. The players released will be auctioned. Tirkey said that India will launch their strongest teams in both the World Cup and Asian Games next year, which is just three weeks later. The World Cup is still a year away and this is an important tournament for us. It is difficult to say which players will still play, but we will try to send the best team. We have told our head coaches and selectors that senior players need to keep themselves fit. We have seen that some promising junior players are coming out, as we saw in the previous Hil. He said that it is not sure that only senior players will go, only the best players will go. He said that the Asian Sports is three weeks after the World Cup and we will try to launch a balanced team in both tournaments.
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