Full national league for Irish hockey from 2014/15

Irish hockey will expand to include a full national league next season after a drawn-out debate was finally settled yesterday.

The 2014/15 campaign will see 10 teams compete in both the men’s and women’s Irish Hockey League, moving to an 18-game, full-season format that takes them out of their provincial leagues.

Eight more clubs will compete in an end-of-season playoff — known as IHL 2 — to determine qualifiers for the following season’s competition.