Men’s team: India 3-0 Pakistan

• Harmeet Desai got things going, beating Khan Muhammad 11-4, 11-3, 11-5 in straight games
• Sathiyan Gnanasekaran extended the lead, defeating Abbas Khan 11-1, 11-8, 11-9
• Payas Jain sealed the clean sweep, beating Khan Muhammad 11-2, 11-5, 11-7

India didn’t drop a single game across the tie. This was a much-needed bounce-back after a shock defeat to Iran earlier in the tournament (India had opened their campaign with a win over Indonesia). The win moved India to the top of Group F with five points from three matches, ahead of Iran — though Iran still had a match against Indonesia left to play.

Women’s team: India 3-0 Pakistan

• Sutirtha Mukherjee opened with a 3-0 win over Aleena Khan (11-3, 11-3, 11-4)
• Syndrela Das, playing her first match on the big stage, beat Kalsoom Khan 11-6, 11-7, 11-5
• Sreeja Akula closed it out, defeating Fatima Khan 11-4, 11-5, 11-5

This was the women’s third win in three matches — their quickest and most dominant result of the tournament so far — and it came right after a hard-fought 3-2 win over Singapore the day before. The victory booked India’s spot in the women’s team quarterfinals (advancing straight to the Round of 16/quarterfinal stage), with their next match scheduled for September 22.

The bigger picture: India’s table tennis campaign is drawing on a growing legacy at the Asian Games — the men’s team won India’s first-ever table tennis medal at Jakarta 2018, and Sutirtha Mukherjee (part of today’s winning women’s side) already has an Asian Games bronze from Hangzhou 2023 in women’s doubles. Seven golds are up for grabs in table tennis at these Games, with the team events wrapping up before individuals take over and finals set for September 28.

The Plan (announced Tuesday, July 28)

FIFA President Gianni Infantino unveiled a proposal to spin off FIFA’s commercial operations — including the men’s and women’s World Cups and Club World Cup — into a new subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE). The plan would sell up to a 20% minority stake to outside investors, targeting an initial equity valuation of $20 billion and raising up to $4.2 billion. J.P. Morgan was hired to manage the deal.

The lead investor was set to be Thrive Eternal, a fund from Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital — Joshua being the brother of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Infantino framed it as “democratization of football,” promising FIFA’s 211 member associations dramatically higher payouts (up to $86 million each by 2038, versus roughly $36 million under the current structure).

Why It Blew Up Fast

Opposition was immediate and intense:

• UEFA (Europe’s 55 members, including World Cup holders Spain, plus Germany, France, England) voted to boycott all FIFA competitions — men’s and women’s World Cup included — for as long as the proposal remained alive, calling it “irresponsible and indefensible” and saying football’s future “cannot be dictated” by profit-seeking investors.
• CONCACAF (41 members, including 2026 co-hosts USA, Canada, Mexico) and the AFC (Asia) also formally rejected the plan.
• Two senior FIFA officials broke ranks internally — one resigned as a presidential adviser, another said staff had been “deceived” about the project.
• UK PM-level criticism: British PM Andy Burnham said Infantino was “the wrong man to lead” FIFA.
• US House Judiciary Democrats accused Infantino of running a “kickback hat trick,” tying it to his earlier FIFA Peace Prize award to Trump and a FIFA office lease inside Trump Tower.

The Political Subtext

This landed on top of an already-scrutinized Infantino-Trump relationship: the FIFA Peace Prize given to Trump, Trump’s on-record intervention to get a red card suspension overturned for US player Folarin Balogun during the tournament, and the “FIFA Pass” program to help foreign World Cup visitors navigate immigration enforcement. Critics saw the Kushner-backed investment deal as the latest and most direct example of FIFA aligning its business interests with Trump’s inner circle.

The Outcome — FIFA Backed Down

Just three days later (Friday, July 31), Infantino scrapped the plan entirely: he said the “proposal will not proceed,” explaining that the project had created divisions that were “no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place.” It’s described as a stunning, rapid defeat — FIFA had used the same “boycott threat” leverage once before, in 2021, to kill a plan for a biennial World Cup.

Why It Matters Beyond Sports

This is a good segment to frame as a governance and money-in-sports story: it’s one of the clearest recent examples of member nations successfully checking a powerful global sports body’s leadership, and it ties into the broader “Trump-adjacent dealmaking” storyline that’s been recurring across sports, media, and business this year. It also raises fresh questions about how FIFA — sitting on record 2026 World Cup revenue near $12-15 billion — will fund its stated ambitions without private capital going forward.

Tournament Overview

The tournament will be co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands from August 15-30, 2026, making it the first-ever co-hosted Men’s Hockey World Cup. It features 32 teams total (16 men’s, 16 women’s), with men’s and women’s competitions being staged simultaneously across two venues — Wagener Hockey Stadium in Amstelveen, Netherlands, and the newly built Belfius Hockey Arena in Wavre, Belgium. Belgium and the Netherlands won hosting rights in 2022, beating bids from England-Wales and South Africa.

India Men’s Team

Harmanpreet Singh will captain India, with Hockey India naming a 20-member squad. India has been drawn in Pool D alongside England, Pakistan and Wales, and will play all group-stage matches at Wagener Hockey Stadium in Amstelveen.

Key fixtures (all times IST when broadcast in India):

• Aug 15: India vs. Wales (opener)
• Aug 17: India vs. England
• Aug 19: The blockbuster India vs. Pakistan clash — arguably the tournament’s most-watched match on the Indian broadcast calendar.

Chief Coach Craig Fulton has expressed confidence in the team’s potential to create a significant moment in Indian hockey history, and the knockout stages begin August 21, with the final on August 30.

India Women’s Team

<cite name=”women squad” index=”275-1″>Salima Tete continues as captain of India’s 20-member squad, described by chief coach Sjoerd Marijne as a balanced mix of experienced players and emerging talent.</cite> The squad is currently training at the national camp in Bengaluru, with the same core group also set to represent India at the upcoming Asian Games.

Confidence is high after India’s unbeaten, title-winning run at the FIH Nations Cup in New Zealand, which also earned promotion back into the FIH Pro League — solid momentum heading into the World Cup.

Key fixtures: India opens against China on August 16, followed by South Africa on August 18, and England on August 20.

New Format — Why It Matters

This edition introduces a new format with a second group stage replacing the traditional straight-to-quarterfinal knockout. The pool stage feeds into a second-round group phase (Pools E/F) for the top two finishers from each group, while bottom-two finishers enter classification pools (G/H) — guaranteeing every team at least five matches before the knockout stage, rather than early elimination after just three games. The women’s final will be held in Amsterdam on August 29, and the men’s final in Wavre on August 30.

Broadcast in India

Live telecast will air on the Star Sports Network, with live streaming available via the JioHotstar app and website.

Why This Story Has Big Engagement Potential

• The India-Pakistan hockey rivalry remains one of the most emotionally charged fixtures in Indian sport, second only to cricket’s version of the rivalry.
• This comes right on the heels of India’s strong CWG boxing performance and ahead of the BWF World Championships in Delhi — meaning mid-to-late August is shaping up as a genuinely packed Indian sports calendar, giving your channel a strong multi-week content runway.
• India last hosted the Men’s World Cup themselves in 2023 (Bhubaneswar/Rourkela), where Germany won gold — so there’s a natural “can India go one better this time” narrative angle.