What is the captain responsible for?

FIH Rule 3 (2027):

• Each team must appoint one player as captain.
• The captain wears a distinctive arm-band or similar on the upper arm or shoulder, or over the top of a sock.
• If the captain is suspended, a replacement captain must be appointed.
• The captain is responsible for the behaviour of all players on the team and for making sure substitutions are carried out correctly. A captain who doesn't exercise these responsibilities gets a personal penalty.
• If a team has too many players on the field and it materially affects the match, the captain must get a yellow card (Rule 2.1).

Cards given to the captain for these team offences don't count towards the 2027 rule that a player can't receive a second card of the same colour. So the captain could still get a second green or yellow card.

The toss (Rule 6.1): the team winning the toss chooses either which goal to attack in the first half, or to start the first two quarters with the centre pass. The other team gets the other choice.