By Emily Goddard

Leandro Negre has ruled out the possibility of future combined men's and women's Hockey World Cups ©AFP/Getty ImagesLeandro Negre, President of the International Hockey Federation (FIH), has ruled out the possibility of future combined men's and women's World Cups because of the "huge" costs.

Speaking following the conclusion of this year's event in The Hague - where the hosting women The Netherlands and Australia's men took the respective titles - the Spaniard warned the costs associated with a joint tournament could act as a deterrent for potential future bidding nations.

"The cost of running a 16-team event for the men and women will be huge," Negre told the Malaysia Star.

"So we do not plan to have it again.

"Furthermore, from a marketing point of view we would rather have two different nations holding the tournament at different times.

"The game is growing in popularity and we see this through the extensive media coverage during the tournament.

"Over 150 countries broadcasted the matches live and with online screening the numbers were huge."

Negre did, however, say The Netherlands did a "fantastic job" in organising the event.

Leandro Negre warned the costs associated with a joint World Cup could act as a deterrent for future bidding nations ©Getty ImagesLeandro Negre warned the costs associated with a joint World Cup could act as a deterrent for future bidding nations ©Getty Images


"This was a great tournament with plenty of excitement on and off the pitch," he added.

"More than 250,000 tickets were sold and each day we a near capacity crowd at the Kyocera Stadium which seats 15,000 spectators.

"Running a tournament over 16 days is a hectic task but one that the Dutch completed with ease and incident free."

The next World Cups are due take place in 2018, with India's capital New Delhi hosting the men's competition, while London stages women's event.

The tournament is then expected to expand to 24 teams each for the following edition in 2022.

Meanwhile, scores of fans have welcomed the winning Australian team home as they touched down at Perth Airport.

The squad's captain Mark Knowles said it was the best reception they had received in a decade.

"We haven't had a reception like this since Athens in 2004, so it means a lot," he added.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
June 2014: Ciriello hat-trick helps Australia's men beat Dutch hosts at Hockey World Cup final
June 2014: Lammers signs off with a goal as Dutch women maintain nation's World Cup fever with hockey gold