In the preliminary round, the 16 teams are divided into four pools of four teams. Each team plays every other team in its pool. The pools were formulated based on the rankings of the senior teams ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, being adjusted to ensure that teams from the same continent were in different pools (where possible), as approved by the FIH Competitions Committee.
The top two teams from each pool will progress to the quarter-finals, with the remaining eight teams playing for classi cation.
