At the end of the World Cup match against South Korea, 12 Japanese players appeared on the field, after which the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has decided to investigate the matter.
Image Credit source: AFP Photo
FIH Hockey World Cup-2023 is currently being played in India. In this World Cup, the teams of Japan and South Korea came face to face on Tuesday. In this match, however, Japan violated a very basic rule in the last minutes. These rules are the same in cricket, football, hockey games and there is a rule that no more than 11 players of a team can land on the field at one time. But Japan violated this rule in the last minutes of the match.
At the end of the World Cup match against South Korea, 12 Japanese players appeared on the field, after which the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has decided to investigate the matter. However, this will not affect the result of the match. Japan lost 1-2 in this Pool-B match and FIH said that this result will stand.
Japan did not realize
This act of Japan was not even caught by the referees in the match. This matter did not even come in his eyes. In the statement issued by FIH, it has been told that Japan also did not realize this and they did it by mistake. FIH said, in the final minutes of today’s (17 January 2023) FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup match between Japan and Korea, the Japanese team had 12 players on the field instead of the maximum of 11 prescribed by the FIH Hockey Rules.
According to the statement, after the match FIH officials – who did not catch the matter at the time – spoke to the Japanese team, who clarified that they did not realize it at all and apologized. FIH officials have also informed the Korean team about the matter. According to the statement, FIH is currently investigating the issue to find out how it happened.
Belgium-Germany match draw
On the other hand, in another World Cup match played on Tuesday, defending champions Belgium kept alive the hope of directly qualifying for the quarter-finals by holding Germany to a 2-2 draw in the Pool B match by scoring a goal six minutes before the end of the match. Cedric Charlier gave Belgium the lead in the ninth minute with a field goal but Germany came back strongly with goals from Wellen Niklas (22nd minute) and Tom Grembusch (52nd minute) to take a 2-1 lead. Grambush scored on a penalty stroke. Victor Vagnez, however, saved Belgium from defeat by scoring in the 54th minute.
Both Belgium and Germany have four points each in two matches. The group winner will be decided by the last matches of both the teams to be held on January 20 at Rourkela’s Birsa Munda Stadium. Belgium will face Japan in the final pool match, while Germany will face South Korea. The Belgian team is currently on top due to a better goal difference of plus five. Germany’s goal difference is plus three.
