The Champions Trophy – the road to qualification

Billed the best of the best, Argentina and India play host to the glittering finale of a fabulous year of hockey

This year has proven a veritable hockey fest for lovers of the game across the globe, and 2014 is exiting with a bang as the start of the Champions Trophy tournaments kicks off in just 10 weeks’ time. The women's competition takes place in Mendoza, Argentina from 29 November - 7 December, while the men will be doing battle in Bhubaneswar, on the eastern side of India from 6 - 14 December.

The Champions Trophy really is a battle between the best of the best. Eight of the top nations in both the men's and women's game compete to claim the trophy. The question on the lips of hockey aficionados this year is whether anyone can break the dominance of the Australians in the men's edition and can the Netherlands women make it a double alongside their stunning performance in the 2014 Rabobank Hockey World Cup?

Australia are the most successful men's team with 13 titles to their name. The Kookaburras have dominated the competition for the past decade, not only are they the defending champions, having won the event in 2012 on home turf at Melbourne, they also won the previous four tournaments. Four titles behind them are Germany who have won the tournament nine times, with the Dutch winning eight times. Along with Pakistan three times, and Spain once in 2004, these are the only teams to have been crowned Champions Trophy winners.

There has been a similar dominance by three teams in the women's version, with the Netherlands and Australia both holding six titles apiece, defending champions Argentina winning five times and Germany, China and Korea all winning once.

Qualification for this year's edition was as follows. Men: India qualified as host nation and their fourth place in the 2012 Champions Trophy; Australia are the defending champions; the Netherlands were runners-up in the 2012 Champions Trophy; Pakistan and Belgium qualify by virtue of their third and fifth respective placings in the 2012 Champions Trophy; Argentina were winners of the 2012 Champions Challenge 1, while England and Germany were given invitational places.

The women's qualification follows a similar pattern: Argentina qualified as defending champions and hosts; Great Britain were runners up in the 2012 edition, enabling England to qualify this time; the Netherlands, Germany and Japan qualify by virtue of their placings in the same tournament, third, fourth and fifth respectively; and Australia were winners of the 2012 Champions Challenge 1. In addition New Zealand and China were given invitational places.

From 2016, the qualification criteria as set out by FIH will be slightly modified to accommodate the Hockey World League results. Qualifying teams will comprise: the host, the 2012 Olympic Champions, the 2014 World Cup winners, 2015 World League champions, the winners of the 2014 Champions Challenge and a team nominated by FIH Executive Board. If any team qualifies twice under the criteria, then FIH Executive Board will invite a further team. The format of the competition will also revert to a six team round robin followed by classification matches.

The fabulous atmosphere and fantastic hockey of the 2014 Rabobank Hockey World Cup was a tremendous showpiece for the game, and Mendoza and Bhubaneswar both promise to provide wonderful platforms for this glittering finale to 2014.