Following the recent changes to the Euro Hockey League (EHL) that we announced on 21st October we would now like to go into detail of how this impacts the EuroHockey events in the 2019-2020 season and beyond:
Men’s Club events
- In June 2019 after the completion of the EuroHockey and EHL 2018-2019 outdoor club season, an updated EHF Club Ranking Table will be published
- As announced EHL will be reduced from 24 to 20 teams (click here for details)
- Taking the above ranking table into account the EHL / EuroHockey Men’s outdoor season 2019/20 will look like this:
- The nations ranked 1-3 – 3 teams in the EHL
- The nations ranked 4-6 – 2 teams in the EHL
- The nations ranked 7-11 – 1 team in the EHL
- The 4th ranked nation in the EHL ranking table will now have 2 entries
- The 7th and 8th ranked country will lose its 2nd EHL entry and those teams will play in the Trophy I (*) from the 2019-2020 season onwards.
- The 12th ranked country will lose its EHL entry and that team will play in the Trophy I (*) from the 2019-2020 season onwards.
* To make sure that more teams can play for EHL ranking points, an additional Trophy event will be created in-between the EHL and the current Trophy.
This new event in 2020, called Trophy I, will comprise of the following teams:
- 2nd team of nation number 7 of the EHF Club Ranking Table
- 2nd team of nation number 8 of the EHF Club Ranking Table
- Champion team of nation number 12 of the EHF Club Ranking Table
- The 5 highest teams of the EuroHockey Club Trophy 2019, played in Wettingen (SUI) at Whitsun 2019, taking EHF Club Ranking Table into consideration.
- The 2020 Trophy II (currently called Trophy) will comprise of the following teams:
- Last 3 teams of the EuroHockey Club Trophy 2019.
- The 5 highest teams from the EuroHockey Club Challenge I 2019, to be played at Whitsun 2019 in Siemianowice Śląskie (POL).
- The 2020 Challenge I will comprise of the following teams:
- Last 3 teams of the EuroHockey Club Challenge I 2019.
- The 5 highest teams from the EuroHockey Club Challenge II 2019, to be played at Whitsun 2019 in Prague (CZE).
- The 2020 Challenge II will comprise of the following teams:
- Last 3 teams of the EuroHockey Club Challenge II 2019.
- The 5 highest teams from the EuroHockey Club Challenge III 2019, to be played at Whitsun 2019 in Alanya (TUR).
- The 2020 Challenge III will comprise of the following teams:
- Last 3 teams of the EuroHockey Club Challenge III 2019.
- The 5 highest teams from the EuroHockey Club Challenge IV 2019, to be played at Whitsun 2019 in Kordin (MLT)
- The 2020 Challenge IV will comprise of the following teams:
- All other teams plus new entries
Important Notes:
- Challenge tournaments will be arranged subject to enough entries and offers to host being received.
- The EHF reserves the right to alter the number of teams competing in each Challenge tournament, to promote teams to fill spaces in a higher-ranking tournament, or to make a draw for entries and reserves once all entries are received (**).
- The final ranking of a Challenge event is 1-1-3-3-5-5-7-7. To determine which team of the two 1st equal teams is ranked highest, Appendix D 5.3 is used.
- The ranking points for the men’s Trophy I and Trophy II will be adjusted before the end of the 2018-2019 club season.
- The EHF Club Ranking Table will determine which teams will play in EHL and Trophy I.
- The following number of teams participate in each event:
Men
EHL – 20
Trophy I – 8
Trophy II – 8
Challenge I – 8
Challenge II – 8
Challenge III – 8 **
Challenge IV – dependent on number of entries **
Women’s Club events
For the women’s outdoor club season 2019-2020, as already announced (click here), the EHCC will be EHL Women. No changes to qualification will be made at this time.
Women
EHL – 8
Trophy – 8
Challenge I – 8
Challenge II – 8
Challenge III – 8
Challenge IV-dependent on number of entries
If Member Associations have questions about this, please contact the EHF Competitions Manager, David Voskamp, competitions@eurohockey.org.