Uruguay women's, USA men's join FIH Hockey Nations Cup

The Uruguay women's and USA men's teams will participate for the very first time in the FIH Hockey Nations Cup 2026. This follows the withdrawals of both Scotland women's and Wales men's. The Women's Nations Cup will take place in Auckland, New Zealand, from June 15 to June 21. The impressive line-up for the competition now includes hosts New Zealand, USA, Japan, Korea, Chile, Uruguay, along with France -- who were promoted via the FIH Hockey Nations Cup 2, and India -- who were relegated from the 2024-25 season of the FIH Hockey Pro League.

The city of Cape Town, South Africa, will host the Men's event from June 11 to June 20 which will also feature some of the highest-ranked teams in the world: South Africa, New Zealand, France, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, USA, along with Scotland--who were promoted via the FIH Hockey Nations Cup 2, and Ireland -- who were relegated from the 2024-25 season of the FIH Hockey Pro League.

The FIH Hockey Nations Cup was launched in 2021 to provide a high-level competition for the best-ranked teams not participating in the FIH Hockey Pro League and allow the winning team to be promoted to the FIH Hockey Pro League in the following season.

India, Spain and New Zealand have won the first three editions of the women's competition thus far. On the men's side, South Africa won the inaugural edition, followed by back-to-back successes for the New Zealand men's team.