With the aim of developing club hockey at an international level, Euro Hockey League (EHL) was introduced for the 2007/08 season, an exciting new format that replaced the men’s European Cup competition.

EHL’s existing shareholders – the European Hockey Federation, MEDIAPRO and Infostrada Sports – believe that this unique international competition can be developed even further and taken to a whole new level, especially in the area of cross media innovations. Additional improvements are envisioned to further validate the league’s claim that the EHL is “The best way hockey has ever been presented”.

In Europe, club hockey is at the heart and base of the sport, with players spending 30 to 35 weeks per year training and playing with their clubs. Euro Hockey League sets out to promote and reinforce the status of club level hockey by creating new and more opportunities for the big European clubs to play each other in the international arena and giving club hockey more exposure, more spectators, more high quality TV coverage and a broader media and marketing platform.

The target group for Euro Hockey League, its TV partners and sponsors consists of millions of European sports fans in countries across the continent, with Euro Hockey League designed to attract interest from not only hockey fans but sports fans in general. This will be achieved by the professional marketing of the competition by established Spanish leading international audio-visual services provider and sports rights management group MEDIAPRO, the production and provision of top level coverage by Infostrada Sports makes the EHL content available for anyone, anywhere and on all possible devices, and through a number of format variations introduced to make the game more transparent and attractive to TV viewers and spectators on site.

When it comes to innovation, the Euro Hockey League has long been seen as Hockey’s leading light, having pioneered many rule changes that have revolutionized the sport on a global level. EHL’s introduction of the Self Pass – where in the event of a foul a player can restart the game by dribbling with the ball rather than having to pass to a team-mate – was universally applauded for making the game more exciting than it has ever been. The Self Pass was quickly introduced to the FIH Rules of Hockey and has unquestionably changed the game forever.

Many other EHL innovations have been introduced at the highest level, including the Green Card two minute suspension, video umpire referrals and an exciting new penalty shoot-out format which sees a running face-off between the penalty taker and the goal-keeper. The EHL also trialled a rule which allowed the ball to be played above the shoulder in non-dangerous positions. It was a phenomenal success, and has become another rule change to be trialled by the FIH at their World Level events. The EHL truly is a laboratory for the continued development of the sport.

The first seven seasons of the EHL have been a staggering success. However, it doesn’t stop here. Euro Hockey League is more than top hockey and excellent media coverage – it is the best way hockey has ever been presented.

The European Hockey Federation (EHF) is the governing body of the sport of hockey in Europe and is composed of the National Associations of European nations that govern hockey in their countries. The EHF exists within the framework of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and as such, its objective is to promote, control, defend and develop hockey at all levels (indoor & outdoor, men & women, senior & junior) throughout the continent of Europe.

The EHF and its member National Associations and their affiliated clubs support and maintain the ideals and objectives of the Olympic movement. The EHF is governed by an Executive Board of elected members and is professionally administered from an office in Brussels, Belgium.

With the aim of developing club hockey at an international level, the European Hockey Federation introduced the Euro Hockey League, the exciting new format that replaced the men’s European Cup competition at the start of the 2007/08 season. For more information, please refer to the company website: www.eurohockey.org

The allotment of places by ranking system follows the principles used to place National Associations in the football Champions League and UEFA Cups. The rankings will be taken from the results over 3 years, with the points for the earlier years discounted by 50% (year 2) and 75% (year 1).

This ranking of National Associations is based on the performance of all their clubs in Euro Hockey League (and EuroHockey Trophy). The total number of points won by clubs from each country will be divided by the number of clubs to which the National Association was entitled in that year’s competition.

National Associations ranked 1-4 in the EHL Ranking Table in this manner may enter three teams each in Euro Hockey League, while National Associations ranked 5-8 may enter two teams each, and National Associations ranked 9-12 one team.

Each National Association remains free to decide the system of qualification for their own clubs, for that number of places which is their entitlement for that year (as a result of their position in the ranking list), subject only to the requirement that the national champion be placed first in a country’s list of teams entered.

To be eligible to play in the Euro Hockey League a country must enter 2 clubs in the EHF club competition.

Ever since the completion of the first season of the Euro Hockey League, a ranking system has been in use to continue to monitor the strengths of the countries in Europe in terms of men’s club competition. This allows countries, if they are good enough, to break into the top Euro Hockey League or progress from 1 to 2 clubs or from 2 to 3 clubs.

The points to be awarded in the ranking table are:

In the Euro Hockey League (the top 24)

Win: 5 points
Draw: 2 points
Loss with goal difference of no more than 2: 1 point
Loss with more than 2 goals between the teams: 0 points

Note that in the knockout phase of the Euro Hockey League, points are awarded on the basis of the match result at the end of regulation time. Thus, if a match goes into extra time or penalty shootout, teams will always be awarded 2 points each because the result at the end of regulation time was a draw.

Should any classification match that ends in a draw go to a shoot-out competition, then the winner of that shoot-out competition shall receive 1 bonus point, in addition to the points which it has earned from the draw.

In the EuroHockey Trophy, the following points are allocated for the respective final positions:

– Winner 12 points

– Runner-up 10 points

– 3rdplace 8 points

– 4thplace 6 points

– 5thplace 4 points

– 6thplace 3 points

– 7thplace 2 points

– 8thplace 1 point

Bonus points

In addition to the basic points won, each club playing in Euro Hockey League (the top 24) will receive 6 bonus points. This reflects the higher standard of competition in the Euro Hockey League (compared to the EuroHockey Trophy) and the fact that clubs in the Trophy will each play 4 matches from which to earn points, whilst some in the Euro Hockey League, if they are eliminated in Round 1, will only play 2 matches.

In addition to the basic points won, each club playing in EHL (the top 24) will receive 6 bonus points. The teams (12) automatically qualified for Round 2 (KO16) will receive extra bonus points as they will not have a chance to earn points from Round 1. It is the corrected average of what they get, based on the points calculated from the 3 previous EHL seasons and is as follows:

1st teams from countries ranked 1-4: 7 bonus points

2nd teams from countries ranked 1-4: 6 bonus points

1st teams from countries ranked 5-6: 6 bonus points

1st teams from countries ranked 7-8: 3 bonus points

In addition to the basic points won, each club playing in the Trophy will receive 3 bonus points.

In addition, the National Association of the clubs contesting the EHL Final will be awarded additional EHL ranking points as follows:

Winning club: 5 points

Runner-up: 3 points

Euro Hockey League is played under purpose-developed tournament regulations by the European Hockey Federation that incorporate the various format variations that will shape play in Euro Hockey League, and under the FIH rules of hockey.

To see the official tournament regulations, please click here.

Last update: February 2016

ANTI-DOPING POLICY

Euro Hockey League supports the fight against doping in sport in all its forms, and therefore endorses the FIH Anti-Doping Policy which is in full accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code.

For more information on FIH’s Anti-Doping Policy and more general information about Anti-Doping, please visit the related section on the FIH website and the WADA website respectively.