Belgium Once Had No Home Stadium for Hockey — Now It's Co-Hosting the World Cup

Wavre: The 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup gets underway this week, co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands — a landmark for Belgian hockey, which for years lacked a proper home stadium of its own for the sport.

Matches run from August 14 to 30, split between the newly built Belfius Hockey Arena in Wavre, Belgium, and the well-established Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, Netherlands. This marks Belgium's first time hosting the tournament and the Netherlands' fourth.

Thirty-two teams in total — 16 men's and 16 women's — will compete under a revamped format: four pools of four feed into a second group phase from August 21, with the top two from each pool advancing directly to the semi-finals, doing away with a separate quarter-final round.

Germany enter as defending men's champions, having beaten Belgium 5-4 in a shoot-out in the 2023 final after the match finished 3-3 in regulation. For Belgium, going from a team without a dedicated home venue to co-hosting the sport's biggest stage marks a striking turnaround.