Banbridge to host EY Champions Trophy Weekend 2025
Friday, November 1, Dublin: Following confirmation of the international competition calendar for both Ireland senior squads, Hockey Ireland today announced changes and updates to its domestic competition calendar for Season 2024/25. The changes were made to facilitate the Senior Men’s participation in FIH Pro League Season 6 starting December 2024, and the Senior Women’s participation in FIH Nations Cup in February 2025.
Hockey Ireland also took the opportunity to announce Banbridge Hockey Club as hosts, once again, of the EY Champions Trophy Weekend in May 2025 to cap off the season’s EY Hockey League programme.
The updated and revised Calendar can be found on the Hockey Ireland website, with the accompanying Calendar Operations Document, including details of alternative contingency dates for specific clashes, e.g. EuroHockey Indoor Club events also available on the site.
The main changes to the domestic calendar, announced today, include:
The Irish Senior Cup (K016), Irish Hockey Trophy (KO8) and Irish Hockey Challenge (KO8) has been moved back by 1 weekend from 8th to 15th February, with the Irish Senior Cup (K08) also going back one weekend from 15th February to 22nd February.
EY Hockey League (D1) will restart 1 weekend earlier after the mid-season break and two weekends of EYHL will be played on the 1st and 8th February, before the international players head to their respective FIH competitions and the clubs continue competitive hockey with two rounds of Irish Senior Cup over two weekends.
Men’s summary: For EYHL (D1), the men will complete the first half of the season on 30th November (Round 10), finishing 1 week earlier before Christmas and restarting 1 week earlier on 1st February. After the 4 weekends of EYHL and Irish Senior Cup in February, they will resume the EYHL on 1st March as per the current Calendar, albeit some of the matches will be refixed to accommodate players returning to Ireland on 27th February.
Women’s summary: For EYHL (D1) women, there is no change prior to the mid-season break, with competition resuming 1 week earlier than the existing Calendar on 1st February with 2 weekends of EYHL and 2 weekends of Irish Senior Cup through February. As the FIH Nations Cup will still be underway on the 1st March, this date will be a contingency date domestically for any Cup postponements due to weather, etc. EYHL Round 15 will pick up on 8th March as per the current Calendar.
Speaking about the changes announced to the domestic competitions calendar today, Chair of the Hockey Ireland Competitions Committee Iain Kelly said:
“The domestic calendar for this season was largely built in anticipation of the international schedule and changes made were relatively minor despite only recent confirmation of the Senior Men’s participation in FIH Pro League Season 6 starting December 2024.”
The Competitions Committee developed a revised Calendar and led the process of engagement across High Performance, Provinces, Irish Hockey Umpires Association and Officials culminating with the Revised Calendar being signed off by the Hockey Ireland Board on 23rd October.
Iain Kelly added:
“I’d like to thank all those who engaged in the revision process and also for the early start we made to the calendar outline for this season, providing us a robust model to minimise the impact of international events which are common across all sports with congested calendars being the norm.”