FIH Champions Challenge 1 - 2011

JONATHAN COOK

After a week-long training camp, convenor of selectors Mike Bechet Thursday morning named the 18-player South Africa men’s hockey team to take part in the crucial Champions Challenge tournament at Randburg Hockey Stadium from Saturday to next Sunday’s finals day on December 4.

LIVEFIH.TV will be available outside contracted broadcasting territories

The forthcoming FIH Men’s Champions Challenge (Johannesburg, South Africa – 26th November – 4th December 2011) and Owen G Glenn FIH Champions Trophy (Auckland, New Zealand – 3-11 December 2011) will be live streamed.

LIVEFIH.TV will transmit all 48 matches from the two events, with three minute highlight videos being made available in the hours following the completion of each game.  As well as this, there will be a Video on Demand (VoD) service for the Semi Finals and Final of the Champions Challenge I, enabling subscribers to watch those particular matches in their entirety at any time they choose. A limited number of On Demand matches will also be available in the latter stages of the Owen G Glenn FIH Champions Trophy.   

The live streaming service will complement the extensive television coverage that both events will receive, giving people outside existing contracted broadcasting territories* the opportunity to see all of the action from these two FIH World Level competitions.

“Hockey fans the world over will be delighted to gain access the world’s best hockey in all territories, via high-quality streaming or via FIH’s broadcast partners”, said FIH President Leandro Negre. “In addition, FIH is able to televise the men’s Champions Challenge for only the second time in its history, which will again bring televised hockey excitement to more countries participating in FIH events.”

LIVEFIH.TV was created by the Perform Group in partnership with the FIH. It is an official online broadcaster for the hockey's world governing body, meaning that viewers can be confident of enjoying high quality streaming, reliable content and match commentary. More information about the service will soon be available at LIVEFIH.TV. 
http://www.livefih.tv/

* Due to licensing and contractual restrictions, access to LIVEFIH.TV may be limited in some territories.

FIH Media release

The South African men's hockey team's Pre-Champions Challenge warm-up match against Malaysia was called off after 15 minutes when a torrential downpour and lightning engulfed the Randburg Hockey Stadium last night. The score was 1-1 at that stage.

You are invited to come down to the Randburg Hockey Stadium to watch the following training games between some of the competing nations for FREE

Tuesday 22 November 18:00 SA v Malaysia

Wednesday 23 November 17:00 SA v Japan

Wednwsday 23 November 19:00 Malaysia v India

Thursday 24 November 16:00 Canada v ???

This is a great opportunity to come and guage what the Champions Challenge tournament will have in store for you. Please remember that these are training games so they may not be a full 70 minute game and the nations will be keeping some of their "tricks" up their sleeves, but the pace of the hockey will be fast and furious.

With exactly 2 months to go until the start of the FIH Champions Challenge 1 in Johannesburg the official website is now live at http://www.champschallenge.co.za. The participating nations are hosts South Africa, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, India, Japan, Malaysia and Poland.

FIH Champions Challenge 1 2011 Men, Johannesburg (South Africa) – 26 November / 4 December 2011

Participating Teams

Match Schedule