Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland will host the upcoming Women’s 2022 EuroHockey Championship qualifier event in August of next year.
The men’s qualifier will be held in Calais, France and both qualifiers are new on the international hockey calendar.
The European Hockey Federation confirmed the breakdown of events on Thursday morning with both events running between August 21st and 27th, 2022.
The 12th ranked Irish women will be the top seed for a Dublin-based event that also features Poland (27th), the Czech Republic (24th), Turkey (33rd) and Finland (unranked).
The Irish women won the last qualifier they took part in, earning themselves the right to play in the 2022 FIH World Cup.
The 14th ranked men are placed in Qualifier B alongside host side France – 13th in the world – as well as Ukraine (28th), Turkey (44th), Lithuania (62nd) and Slovenia (71st).
Previously, the level of European championship competition countries took part in was on a promotion and relegation basis.
This new format sees four men’s and four women’s qualifier tournaments with one ticket to the top tier championships in 2023 on offer from each event – each qualifier tournament will be held in a different location.
The second and third-placed finishers in each tournament will play in the 2023 EuroHockey Trophy; fourth and fifth-placed sides go to the third tier while the remaining teams will go into the fourth tier.
2022 EuroHockey Championship qualifiers (all August 2022)
Men
Qualifier A (Ourense, Spain): Spain, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia
Qualifier B (Calais, France): France, IRELAND, Ukraine, Turkey, Slovenia
Qualifier C (Vienna, Austria): Austria, Russia, Belarus, Croatia, Denmark, Hungary
Qualifier D (TBC, Scotland): Scotland, Wales, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Gibraltar, Finland
Women
Qualifier A (Durham, England): England, Wales, Russia, Croatia, Slovakia
Qualifier B (Dublin, Ireland): IRELAND, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Finland
Qualifier C (TBC): Belarus, Italy, Ukraine, Lithuania, Gibraltar
Qualifier D (Dunkirk, France): France, Scotland, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia
