Hockey World Cup 2023: FIH To Investigate 12 Japanese Players

FIH will investigate Japanese players who appeared on field during the match against Korea, in the Hockey World Cup 2023. Belgium played out a draw against Germany.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) opened an investigation after discovering 12 Japanese players on the pitch near the end of their World Cup match versus South Korea on Tuesday. The FIH declared that the score of 1-2 vs Japan in the Pool B match stands.

The Japanese side had 12 players on the field of play in the final seconds of today’s FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup game against Korea, as opposed to the maximum of 11 allowed by the FIH Rules of Hockey, the FIH said in a statement.

The Japanese team claimed that they hadn’t noticed this at all and offered their sincerest apologies to the FIH Officials who had not seen this problem at the time of the match. 

The Korean side has received an explanation from the FIH officials as well. FIH is presently looking into the matter to see how it occurred.

Belgium Play Out 2-2 Draw Against Germany

In an exciting 2-2 draw with Germany on Tuesday at the FIH Men’s World Cup, defending champions Belgium maintained their chances of advancing through to the quarterfinals by scoring an equaliser with six minutes remaining in the game.

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Cedric Charlier’s field goal gave Belgium the ahead in the ninth minute, but Germany rallied to score two goals through Wellen Niklas and Tom Grambusch in the second half (52nd, penalty stroke).

A field goal by Victor Wegnez in the 54th minute prevented Belgium from losing the Pool B encounter.

The group winner will be decided in Belgium’s and Germany’s respective final games on January 20 at the Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela. Both teams have four points after two games.

Germany plays South Korea, while Belgium plays Japan. With a goal differential of plus five as opposed to Germany’s plus three, Belgium now leads the pool.

In a previous Pool A encounter, South Korea defeated Japan 2-1 after coming back from a goal down.

After Ken Nagayoshi gave South Korea the leading in the first minute with a penalty corner, Lee Jung-jun scored twice (in the eighth and 23rd minutes).

With three points, South Korea is in third place. They’d suffered a 0-5 defeat to Belgium in their opening game. Japan had also fallen to Germany 0-3, losing their opening game.