Amsterdam, Nov 28 (FN Bureau) The FIH Hockey Pro League 2024/25 bursts into action in just two days.The highly anticipated opening matches are set to take place on November 30, in two iconic locations: Hangzhou, China, and Amsterdam, Netherlands, promising a spectacular start to this season of international hockey action.The Hangzhou stage will see the women’s teams of China, Belgium and England compete from November 30 to December 5, with China taking on Belgium on the opening day at 12:30 CET.The men’s action also begins on the very same day with a re-match of the Paris 2024 gold medal match between Netherlands and Germany to start us off from Amsterdam at 14:30 CET!After a couple of seasons where only some teams hosted matches, all participating teams will host matches this time, therefore promoting one of the original principles of the creation of Pro League – ie, connecting teams and athletes with their own fans by playing home matches.Furthermore, the match schedule has been defined in such a way that each team will play half of their matches in December/February and the other half in June. This will make the League far easier to follow, especially for all hockey fans around the world.The Dutch women continue to be the most dominant force in international hockey, as they come into the new season, not only as the defending champions, but following their gold medal at Paris 2024, also as the holders of all major international trophies in women’s hockey.The chasing pack will include Alyson Annan’s impressive Chinese team, who came within a few minutes of dethroning the Dutch at the gold medal match in the Olympics.Argentina who won bronze in Paris, and are the only team other than the Dutch to win the women’s Pro League (2021-22) are guaranteed to be among the challengers, along with Belgium and Germany who have steadily improved with each passing game over the past couple of years.Things remain incredibly tight among the men’s teams, with Australia coming in as defending champions from the last season.
Chasing them down will be the likes of Netherlands, Germanyand India who finished as the gold, silver and bronze medalists, respectively, at Paris 2024.The likes of Argentina, Spain, Great Britain and Belgium also excelled in moments at the Olympics despite missing out on a medal and their threat will once again make the men’s competition in theFIH Hockey Pro League 2024/25 season incredibly difficult to predict.In terms of the promoted teams, the winners of the Women’s FIH Hockey Nations Cup 2024, Spain, will rejoin the Pro League, after a first spell in the 2021-22 season, where the RedSticks finished 5th. They’re replacing the USA, who’ve been relegated.On the men’s side, New Zealand, despite winning the last edition of the Nations Cup, have decided not to join this time. France, runners-up of that same Nations Cup, have made the same decision.Consequently, Ireland, who finished in the last spot during their FIH Hockey Pro League debut in the 2023/24 season will not be relegated and will play their second consecutive Pro League season.Ireland, who started to show real signs of progress towards the end of the previous season, particularly with two hugely impressive wins over Belgium, will be a tough matchup for all the other teams, and the Green Machine will hope to improve on their league standing from last season to stave off the relegation threat altogether this time.The 2024/25 season will undoubtedly see the emergence of new talents and thrilling storylines, as the best players from around the world take center stage. Expect to see breakout performances and new names making their mark, particularly as teams start building for the future after the end of the Paris 2024 Olympic cycle.