Return to hockey
Hockey Ireland would like to thank all of our clubs for ensuring that Government imposed restrictions on our sport are being followed in order to contribute to the reduction of the spread of Covid-19.
While it is hoped that the Republic of Ireland will move to a lower Level of restrictions in the coming weeks, at this moment Hockey Ireland do not know what the next Level of restrictions on sport will be. Ulster hockey is also carefully monitoring the situation in Northern Ireland.
The EYHL Working Group and the Board of Hockey Ireland have met this week and discussions have taken place in relation to returning to competitive hockey as soon as possible.
The EYHL working group has prepared three clear scenarios. The first and most positive option would be that we would be able to use two dates (the 12th and 19th of December) for EYHL rounds, but this is only possible if training can resume early December.
The Board has given guidance to be as flexible as possible in the approach to the playing calendar. The Hockey Ireland COVID-19 Group, which includes representatives of the Branches, will reconvene next week and discuss the various options and any feedback that the clubs may have is welcome through the Branches.
Where restrictions are not lifted for the Island of Ireland in the beginning of December, the two other scenarios would be to consider re-starting competitive hockey in early January or later in January. The option of a ‘curtailed’ season may also to be considered if the restrictions continue into 2021 or new restrictions are imposed later in the season.
We will keep you updated as soon as we have more information. In the meantime, Hockey Ireland would like to re-iterate to our members our desire to facilitate a return to competitive hockey as soon as it is possible to do so safely.
Membership:
The Hockey Ireland membership system was set up in 2018 to help Hockey Ireland understand it’s numbers which in turn would help the organisation to plan for the future and engage with potential partners .
Currently close to 32,000 are on the database, this includes club members playing at junior and senior level. Hockey Ireland endeavours to include all those connected to the game we love whether they are a player, umpire, coach, masters player, schools player or volunteer.
The development of the membership system is ongoing with a view to developing a system that will offer additional functionality to our clubs/members and also offer a package that includes personal accident insurance for its members.
With the current difficulties of the Covid-19 situation the process of membership for the coming season will remain the same. Each club will be asked to register and update their members on the Hockey Ireland membership system as in previous years.
We would like to thank all the clubs and provinces for their support with the membership and hope to expand on it’s potential in the coming year.
A Membership Working Group consisting of provincial representatives and Hockey Ireland representatives are working through the finer detail of the membership system to come up with a fee structure for its members. Currently HI receives affiliation fees for all Senior Club teams, collected by the province on behalf of HI. The HI junior membership is currently free. This working group will keep in touch with the clubs, updating them with their progress over the next few months. The membership system will offer personal accident insurance and other services through the software system that will manage the membership. A road map to its introduction will be issued in the New Year with a hope to go live June 1st 2021.