The Worldwide Hockey Federation (FIH) can verify that the “Inexperienced Military” – Eire’s nationwide hockey crew nickname – will be part of the FIH Hockey Professional League for the 2025-26 season. Will probably be the primary time that the finalists of the 2018 FIH Hockey Ladies’s World Cup will be part of the “League of the Finest”.
Eire was promoted via the FIH Hockey Nations Cup performed in Chile earlier this 12 months. While New Zealand gained that occasion in opposition to Eire within the last, Hockey New Zealand later indicated that the Black Sticks wouldn’t proceed with the invitation to hitch Professional League this time. Due to this fact, as stipulated within the laws, FIH prolonged the invitation to the runners-up, particularly Eire, who’ve confirmed their participation.
FIH President Tayyab Ikram mentioned: “Congratulations to the Eire Ladies crew for becoming a member of the following season of the FIH Hockey Professional League! It’s great to see a brand new crew taking part within the ‘League of the Finest’. Qualifying via the FIH Hockey Nations Cup confirms how a lot the latter is a superb springboard to hitch hockey’s elite.”
Talking after the announcement, Eire Ladies’s Head Coach Gareth Grundie mentioned: “I’m delighted that we now have been given the chance to take part within the FIH Professional League 2025/26 Season 7. It’s a testomony to the standard of play this crew has achieved up to now and is a wonderful and invaluable alternative for additional enchancment. It comes at a super time for us as a programme additionally, pitting us in opposition to the World’s greatest groups as we go searching for qualification for the 2026 FIH World Cup within the Netherlands and Belgium.”
Ending the 2024-25 Ladies’s Professional League season in final place of the rankings, India is relegated to the FIH Hockey Nations Cup.
On the lads’s facet, following the Black Sticks’ victory on the latest Nations Cup in Malaysia, FIH has prolonged an invite to Hockey New Zealand for his or her males’s crew to hitch Professional League once more subsequent season. Since New Zealand’s hockey governing physique is presently endeavor a radical evaluation and decision-making course of on this regard, FIH has accredited their request for an extension of the deadline to verify or decline their participation till 21 July.
Ought to New Zealand ultimately determine to not take part, the runners-up of the Males’s Nations Cup, particularly Pakistan, would have the chance to contemplate becoming a member of the 2025-26 FIH Hockey Professional League season.
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