The thrill is constructing throughout the worldwide hockey group as we edge ever nearer to the FIH Hockey Professional League 2024/25, with the brand new season beginning off in precisely one month, on 30 November! The followers, groups, and coaches are gearing up for what guarantees to be one other thrilling season of the “League of the Greatest.”
The Professional League, famend for its intense, high-quality competitors, returns to ship a showcase of world-class hockey, that includes the highest nationwide groups in each males’s and ladies’s divisions. And as was the case for the final season, the winners of the 2024/25 season, ladies and men, will get at least a direct qualification for the FIH Hockey World Cup Netherlands-Belgium 2026!
A New Format to Elevate Fan Expertise
After a few seasons the place just some groups hosted matches, all collaborating groups* will host matches this time, due to this fact selling one of many authentic ideas of the creation of Professional League – ie, connecting groups and athletes with their very own followers by taking part in dwelling matches.
Moreover, the match schedule has been outlined in such a approach that every crew will play half of their matches in December/February and the opposite half in June. It will make the League far simpler to observe, particularly for all hockey followers all over the world.
Groups to Watch
The Dutch girls proceed to be essentially the most dominant drive in worldwide hockey, as they arrive into the brand new season, not solely because the defending champions, however following their gold medal at Paris 2024, additionally because the holders of all main worldwide trophies in girls’s hockey! The chasing pack will embody Alyson Annan’s spectacular Chinese language crew, who got here inside a couple of minutes of dethroning the Dutch on the gold medal match within the Olympics. Argentina who gained bronze in Paris, and are the one crew aside from the Dutch to win the ladies’s Professional League (2021-22) are assured to be among the many challengers, together with Belgium and Germany who’ve steadily improved with every passing sport over the previous couple of years.
Issues stay extremely tight among the many males’s groups, with Australia coming in as defending champions from the final season. Chasing them down would be the likes of Netherlands, Germany and India who completed because the gold, silver and bronze medalists, respectively, at Paris 2024. The likes of Argentina, Spain, Nice Britain and Belgium additionally excelled in moments on the Olympics regardless of lacking out on a medal and their menace will as soon as once more make the boys’s competitors within the FIH Hockey Professional League 2024/25 season extremely tough to foretell.
Rising Groups and New Faces
When it comes to the promoted groups, the winners of the Ladies’s FIH Hockey Nations Cup 2024, Spain, will rejoin the Professional League, after a primary spell within the 2021-22 season, the place the RedSticks completed fifth. They’re changing the USA, who’ve been relegated.
On the boys’s aspect, New Zealand, regardless of successful the final version of the Nations Cup, have determined to not be a part of this time. France, runners-up of that very same Nations Cup, have made the identical determination. Consequently, Eire, who completed within the final spot throughout their FIH Hockey Professional League debut within the 2023/24 season won’t be relegated and can play their second consecutive Professional League season. Eire, who began to point out actual indicators of progress in the direction of the top of the earlier season, significantly with two vastly spectacular wins over Belgium, will likely be a troublesome matchup for all the opposite groups, and the Inexperienced Machine will hope to enhance on their league standing from final season to stave off the relegation menace altogether this time.
The 2024/25 season will undoubtedly see the emergence of latest abilities and thrilling storylines, as the perfect gamers from all over the world take middle stage. Count on to see breakout performances and new names making their mark, significantly as groups begin constructing for the longer term after the top of the Paris 2024 Olympic cycle.
Get Prepared for the Better of Hockey
Because the countdown to the FIH Hockey Professional League 2024/25 hits the one-month mark, anticipation continues to construct for one more season of exhilarating matches, skillful shows, and unforgettable moments. The stage is about for the world’s greatest groups to face off in a league that celebrates the essence of competitors on the highest stage of hockey!
Mark your calendars for 30 November 2024—the beginning of the League of the Greatest. Whether or not you’re watching from the stands or tuning in from dwelling, this Professional League season is to not be missed.
FIH Hockey Professional League 2024-25 phases:
- Hangzhou, China (30 November – 5 December 2024)
- Amsterdam, Netherlands (30 November – 9 December 2024)
- Santiago del Estero, Argentina (10-15 December 2024)
- Sydney, Australia (4-9 February 2025)
- Argentina (19-24 February 2025) – venue tbc
- Bhubaneswar, India (15-25 February 2025)
- Valencia, Spain (7-8 June 2025)
- Amsterdam, Netherlands (7-15 June 2025)
- London, Nice Britain (14-22 June 2025)
- Antwerp, Belgium (14-29 June 2025)
- Berlin, Germany (21-29 June 2025)
For extra particulars on fixtures, groups, and venues, go to the official FIH Professional League web page right here.
*besides Eire