England and Wales bid to host men's Hockey World Cup unsuccessful

Image source, Lukas Schulze

Image caption, The last time the men's World Cup was held in the United Kingdom was in 1986

England and Wales have been unsuccessful in their bid to host the men's Hockey World Cup in 2026.

Belgium and the Netherlands were chosen by the executive board of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Thursday.

The two countries will host the women's and men's World Cups simultaneously.

The tournament venues will be in Amsterdam, Amstelveen and Wavre with men's and women's teams competing in both countries.

England and Wales launched their bid to host in June.

"On behalf of FIH, I would like to thank wholeheartedly all National Associations that submitted a bid," FIH chief executive Thierry Weil said. "We received excellent proposals and it was therefore a particularly challenging task to decide."