The International Hockey Federation announced in December 2018 that the 2022 FIH Hockey World Cups will be held either in July 2022 or January 2023.[3] The FIH received the following final five bids for the Women's 2022 World Cup.[4] In November 2019, it was announced that Spain and the Netherlands would host the tournament in July 2022.[1]
For the preferred time window 1–17 July 2022:
Germany
Netherlands & Spain
Spain
For the preferred time window 13–29 January 2023:
Australia (withdrew)
India (withdrew)
Malaysia
New Zealand
Qualification
Just as in 2018, 16 teams competed in the tournament. Alongside the hosts, Spain and the Netherlands, the five continental champions received an automatic berth.[1] After the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics the quota of places available through continental championships including the World Cup hosts was increased from six to sixteen.[5]
As the hosts, Netherlands and Spain played in their countries until the quarter-final. Therefore, they were allocated in different sides of the pools but in the rows corresponding to their World Ranking. Based on that ranking, Netherlands was positioned as A1 and Spain as C2. The top four teams according to the world ranking and qualified to the event were allocated in the first row as the headers of each pool.[8]