The Wagener Stadium will be the stage for Easter 2022’s ABN AMRO EHL Men and Women’s competitions with AH&BC Amsterdam opening its doors once again for the world’s best club hockey competition.
The famous Dutch stadium will provide an immaculate arena for what is planned to be a return to the famous festival atmosphere of the EHL with 12 men’s teams and eight women’s teams competing.
The EHL Men’s Cup, meanwhile, has been confirmed for Club Egara next Easter and will feature eight clubs contesting the second tier competition.
The draws for the EHL Women’s FINAL8, EHL Men’s FINAL12 and EHL Ranking Cup competitions will be made on Tuesday.
The EHL Women’s competition will be played on a FINAL8 basis with reigning champions HC ’s-Hertogenbosch the number one seeded side.
England’s Surbiton will play in the EHL for the second time in quick succession having played in the Ranking Cup in October; they are the reigning English winners having won the crown in 2019/20 with their last league season cancelled.
EHL Men will follow the format originally planned for Easter 2021 with 12 teams taking part in the primary competition while a further eight clubs will contest the EHL Cup.
In the main FINAL12 event, the champions from the top four ranked nations have received a bye through to the quarter-finals. These include 2021 EHL champions HC Bloemendaal (Netherlands), Germany’s Rot-Weiss Köln, Spain’s Club de Campo de Madrid and Belgium’s KHC Dragons.
They await a winner which will come from four preliminary fixtures. This phase features England’s Surbiton, Austrian champions SV Arminen, France’s Saint Germain, Belarus’s HC Minsk and Russia’s Dinamo Ak Bars as well as German runners-up HTC Uhlenhorst Mülheim, Netherlands’ SV Kampong and Spain second seeds Atlètic Terrassa.
The EHL Men’s Cup will be played at Club Egara is made up of the most recent champions from Scotland, Grange, and Ireland, Three Rock Rovers.
They are in the mix with Belgian second seeds Waterloo Ducks, England’s Hampstead & Westminster and Austria’s Post SV and the third clubs from Germany, the Netherlands and Spain – Mannheimer HC, HC Rotterdam and Club Egara, respectively.
ABN AMRO EHL – Easter 2022
EHL Women (at the Wagener Stadium, Amstelveen)
FINAL8: HC ’s-Hertogenbosch (NED), AH&BC Amsterdam (NED), Club de Campo de Madrid (ESP), Junior FC (ESP), Düsseldorfer HC (GER), Surbiton (ENG), Gantoise HC (BEL), Pegasus (IRL)
EHL Men
FINAL12 preliminary round: Uhlenhorst Mülheim (GER), SV Kampong (NED), Atlètic Terrassa (ESP), Surbiton (ENG), SV Arminen (AUT), Saint Germain (FRA), HC Minsk (BLR), Dinamo Ak Bars (RUS)
Byes to KO8: Rot-Weiss Köln (GER), HC Bloemendaal (NED), Club de Campo de Madrid (ESP), KHC Dragons (BEL)
EHL CUP: Mannheimer HC (GER), HC Rotterdam (NED), Club Egara (ESP), Waterloo Ducks (BEL), Hampstead & Westminster (ENG), Post SV (AUT), Grange (SCO), Three Rock Rovers (IRL)
