The WMH Development Committee have been tasked with developing the Hockey 5 format to encourage the participation of countries which are unlikely to have enough players to form 11-a-side teams. It allows more matches to be played at smaller hockey venues, it is a high-speed game, there tends to be lots of goals and excitement and the format appears to be very attractive to many players and spectators.
However, the nature of the game poses serious questions. Given the pace of the game and the ages of the players, would 6-a-side be a better format? FIH changed their indoor competitions back to 6-a-side when the 5-a-side events failed to generate the desired audience numbers, so it is a case of wait and see.
WMH currently organises bi-annual Indoor World Cups for interested age groups and encourages indoor SoM competitions to run alongside these. It is expected that the popularity of these will increase in line with the outdoor versions.