India and Pakistan have been grouped together in Pool B for the men's Olympic hockey qualifier, to be played in Madrid, Spain, from March 2 to 13, 2004.
Twelve teams have been divided into two groups based on the FIH rankings as on October 31, 2003..
Malaysia, New Zealand, Belgium and Canada are the other teams in the group.
Group A comprises defending Olympic champions The Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, Japan, South Africa and Poland.
The top seven teams from the qualifier will join five teams -- South Korea, Australia, Argentina, Germany and Egypt, who already qualified for the Olympics by virtue of emerging champions of their respective continents.
Cuba advised the FIH that it does not wish to exercise its right to compete in the qualifying tournament. As a result, Canada, the first reserve country, accepted an invitation to participate.
France is the first reserve country for the tournament.
The pools for the tournament are based upon the FIH Tournament Regulations for a two-pool competition, namely:
TABLE.sco{COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: arial; FONT-SIZE: 12px; TEXT-DECORATION: none}
| Pool A | Pool B |
| 1st Ranked | 2nd Ranked |
| 4th Ranked | 3rd Ranked |
| 5th Ranked | 6th Ranked |
| 8th Ranked | 7th Ranked |
| 9th Ranked | 10th Ranked |
| 12th Ranked | 11th Ranked |
Therefore, based upon the official FIH world rankings issued 31 October 2003, the pools will be as follows:
| Pool A | Pool B |
| 1. Netherlands (2) | 2. Pakistan (5) |
| 4. Great Britain (8) | 3. India (6) |
| 5. Spain (9) | 6. Malaysia (10) |
| 8. Japan (12) | 7. New Zealand (11) |
| 9. South Africa (13) | 10. Belgium (14) |
| 12. Poland (17) | 11. Canada (15) |
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