Imagine a clearly hypothetical international match between Northland, rated at 2,000 FIH ranking points, and Southport, rated at 1,800 points. If the game is an official continental qualifier, the FIH formula does not award a fixed number of points for every win. It transfers a calculated amount from one team to the other, based on the result, the teams’ pre-match ratings, and the competition’s importance. In this example, the same fixture could move 24 points after a favorite’s regulation win, 36 after an underdog upset, 1.2 after a draw, or 18 after the lower-rated side wins a shootout.
Checked September 30, 2026: the FIH ranking update published August 31, 2026 still describes the match-based exchange model introduced in 2020. The numerical example below follows the formula in FIH’s currently linked January 2020 explanation document.
Those figures are illustrative calculations, not real teams, match results, or ranking updates. They use the formula and importance weighting published by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The system is match-based and Elo-style: the two teams exchange equal and opposite amounts, so one side’s gain is the other side’s loss.
The FIH model expresses a team’s post-match rating as:
Points after the match = points before the match + R × W × I
Here, R is the result factor, W is the rating-difference weighting, and I is the importance value assigned to the match type. For the opposing team, the same calculated amount is subtracted. A win is not worth one universal number: the winner earns more for beating a higher-rated opponent, and less for beating a lower-rated opponent.
The FIH says its outdoor ranking model applies to official international matches that are sanctioned, recorded in its Tournament Management System (TMS), and award international caps. A training match that is not recorded as an eligible international does not exchange ranking points. This guide explains the outdoor international formula; FIH also publishes separate rankings for junior, indoor, and Hockey5s competition.
| Official match result | Result factor, R | Effect in plain English |
|---|---|---|
| Regulation win or loss | 10 for the winner | The winner gains the calculated exchange; the loser loses the same amount. |
| Draw without a shootout result | 1 | The lower-rated team gains a small amount; the higher-rated team loses that same amount. |
| Shootout win or loss | 5 for the shootout winner | The shootout winner gains the calculated exchange; the shootout loser gives up the same amount. |
A shootout is not counted as both a draw and a separate bonus in this ranking formula. When a match is decided by shootout, the ranking result factor is the shootout-win value. This is distinct from a tournament’s match-table points, which may use their own system for a shootout victory or defeat.
Northland is the higher-rated team at 2,000 points. Southport is the lower-rated team at 1,800. The difference is 200 points. The FIH’s published table assigns an importance value of 3 to a continental qualifier, so this example uses I = 3.
For a win by the higher-rated team, the weighting is 1 minus the winner–loser rating difference divided by 1,000: W = 1 − (2,000 − 1,800) ÷ 1,000 = 0.8. The exchange is 10 × 0.8 × 3 = 24 points. Northland adds 24, reaching 2,024; Southport loses 24, falling to 1,776.
Now the winner has the lower pre-match rating. Its difference from the opponent is negative: W = 1 − (1,800 − 2,000) ÷ 1,000 = 1.2. The exchange is 10 × 1.2 × 3 = 36 points. Southport rises to 1,836 and Northland falls to 1,964. The upset moves more points because the pre-match ratings made Northland the expected stronger side.
For a draw, the FIH calculates the weighting using the lower-rated team’s points minus the higher-rated team’s points. That gives the same W = 1.2 in this example. With the draw result factor of 1, the exchange is 1 × 1.2 × 3 = 1.2 points. Southport gains 1.2, and Northland loses 1.2. The draw does not leave ratings unchanged: a lower-rated side receives a small gain for matching the higher-rated side.
If the match is recorded as a shootout win for Southport, keep the underdog weighting at 1.2 but use R = 5: 5 × 1.2 × 3 = 18 points. Southport gains 18 and Northland loses 18. A shootout win is therefore worth more in the ranking calculation than a draw, but less than a regulation upset under these same assumptions. If Northland instead wins the shootout, its weighting is 0.8 and the exchange is 5 × 0.8 × 3 = 12 points.
| Hypothetical result | Points transferred | Northland after | Southport after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northland regulation win | 24 to Northland | 2,024 | 1,776 |
| Southport regulation win | 36 to Southport | 1,964 | 1,836 |
| Draw | 1.2 to Southport | 1,998.8 | 1,801.2 |
| Southport shootout win | 18 to Southport | 1,982 | 1,818 |
| Northland shootout win | 12 to Northland | 2,012 | 1,788 |
Each row starts from the same pre-match ratings. They are alternative outcomes, not sequential matches; do not add all rows together.
The importance factor scales the exchange. In the FIH explanation document, a World Cup and the Olympic Games each carry a value of 10; a World Cup or Olympic qualifier and a continental championship each carry 6; the FIH Pro League carries 5; a continental qualifier carries 3; and a one-off test match carries 1. The document lists other competition categories too. Use the category assigned to the actual fixture rather than guessing from its name or assuming every international counts equally.
For instance, keep the hypothetical ratings and result the same but change the match from a continental qualifier to a one-off test match. With I reduced from 3 to 1, Northland’s expected regulation win transfers 10 × 0.8 × 1 = 8 points, rather than 24. Southport’s regulation upset transfers 12 rather than 36. The result factor and rating gap have not changed; only the competition weight has.
The FIH model also describes a safeguard for rating gaps above 1,000 points: the weighting is capped at 2 if the lower-rated team wins, and at 0 if the higher-rated team wins. The Northland–Southport example uses a 200-point gap, so that cap does not apply.
This estimate is useful for understanding direction and approximate scale, but the official table is the final reference. It can differ if the match’s classification, pre-match rating, eligibility, or processed result is different from an assumption in a hand calculation.
Learn how the FIH match-based ranking formula transfers points after a win, draw, or shootout, with a clearly labeled hypothetical example and the key factors that change the total.
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