The Euro Hockey League will increase its EHL Women’s competition to 12 teams for the 2024/25 season.
The expansion, from its current eight-strong format, will also see the number of nations represented rise from six to eight for a FINAL12 phase which will take place at Easter 2025.
It means the top four nations on the EHL Ranking Table will receive two places for the FINAL12 with the nations ranked fifth to eighth all receiving one spot each.
The format sees eight teams play preliminary games – currently scheduled for Wednesday, April 16th 2025 – with the four winners advancing to the EHL Women’s FINAL8 while the losers will contest Ranking Matches for 9th to 11th.
The champions from the top four nations will receive byes into the FINAL8. This format was previously deployed for EHL Men at Easter 2022.
This week’s news is the latest step in the evolution of EHL Women since it was first played in 2021, with four competing teams during the Covid-19 affected season.
Since then, EHL Women has been played on a FINAL8 basis for the past three seasons.
