LAHORE - The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has changed the format of the 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 21st to 25th January, while the final round will be played from 26th January to 8th February at same venue, said a spokesman of PHF here on Saturday. " The 22 participating teams are divided into five pools." Two top teams from each pool will qualify for final round and rest of the teams will play in plate championship. Final round and plate championship will be played simultaneously", he said. The 10 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.