LAHORE - The Pakistan Hockey Federation has changed the format of 56th National Hockey Championship and rescheduled the event dates. According to the new schedule National Hockey Championship will be played from 21st January to 8th February at National Hockey Stadium Lahore. The preliminary round of the championship will be played from January 21 to 25, while the final round will be played from January 26 to February 8 at the same venue. In all 22 participating teams have been divided in to five pools. According to the new format, two top teams from each pool will qualify for the final round and rest of the teams will play a tray championship. The final round and tray championship will be played simultaneously. The ten teams of the final round, playing on league basis will play classification matches at the conclusion of the league. Two teams of the bottom (9th & 10th) will be placed in the group of tray teams for the next championship. The two top teams of the tray championship will qualify for the final round for the next championship, to directly play the final round. Pool A comprises of PIA, Sui Gas, Balochistan, Customs and PTV. Pool B comprises on NBP, NWFP, KESC and Railways. Pool C comprises on Army, HBL, PAF and HEC. Pool D comprises on WAPDA, Steel Mills, Sindh, Navy and POF. Pool E comprises on Police, Port Qasim, Punjab and Federal Territory. The team of Federal Territory will comprise of players from AJ&K, Islamabad, FATA and Northern Areas. The PHF has also announced the technical officials for the championship. Olympian Khalid Bashir will be the tournament director, while Muhammad Akhlaq will assist him as assistant tournament director. Rana Mujahid Ali will be the organizing Secretary and Khalid Rasool will act as assistant tournament secretary. The other officials are Anjum Saeed, Zahid Iqbal, Arif Hayyat (tournament officers), Rashid Mehmood Butt (umpires manager), Rashid Ali Khan, Syed Naeem Akhtar (assistant tournament managers), Allahdad, Rana Muhammad Afzal, Mirza Javed, Haroon Saeed, Munawar Hussain Azad, Faizan (judges), Syed Zulfiqar Haider Shah, Rana Muhammad Liaqat, Anwaar Hussain, Kamran Hussain, M. Asif Khan, Mohsin Ali Khan, Zulfiqar Hussain, Munawar Hussain, Ihsan Ul Haq Babar, Muhammad Mushtaq, Muhammad Parvez, Haq Nawaz, Raja Anwar Kamal and Haider Rasool (umpires).