Amsterdam (Netherlands), June 27 (IANS): With a win against Great Britain in the FIH Hockey Pro League match here on Thursday, the Germany women's team qualified for the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 to be held in Belgium and the Netherlands.

At the start of the 2023/24 season of the FIH Hockey Pro League, a new incentive was added to the event, with the title winners in each section bagging a direct qualification to the respective FIH Hockey World Cups in 2026. As per the rules, in the event of Belgium or Netherlands winning either of the men’s or women’s titles, the team finishing in the highest position behind them would take their place in qualifying for the World Cup.

Netherlands women have been in sublime form all season in the FIH Hockey Pro League and sealed their second consecutive and fourth overall title in front of their home fans, with a 4-0 win against Germany on June 22.

As the hosts, Netherlands had already secured qualification for the upcoming World Cup, therefore the team finishing in second place in the Pro League would instead inherit the direct qualification spot in hockey’s showpiece quadrennial event.

Germany, with their win over Great Britain today climbed to second place in the women’s FIH Hockey Pro League points table, going past Argentina, who completed their 2023/24 campaign earlier this month.

While Germany and Argentina are level on 34 points, with Germany having a game in hand, the Danas are guaranteed to finish above Leonas, given the first tiebreaker for teams level on points is the number of outright wins.

Argentina concluded their campaign with 10 wins in their 16 matches, while Germany have won 11 of their 15 matches so far this season, to assure themselves of a second-place finish and a spot in the FIH Hockey World Cup Belgium and Netherlands 2026.