The KNHB’s competition management published Friday afternoon the grouping of the National Youth and Senior Teams for the 2025-2026 season. This includes the competitions for standard teams (Ladies 1 and Men 1) from the Main Division to the Fourth Division, and the National Top Division and Subtop Division O18 and O16. Match schedules will be announced in mid-August.
The preliminary classifications of the Fourth Division standard teams are also included in the overview. Previous years have shown that there are still frequent changes in this class, therefore this is a preliminary classification. The KNHB asks field hockey players to take into account that shifts may still occur and that travel distances may be more or less favorable as a result. The league management strives to keep the average travel distance for each club as small as possible, but must consider the overall picture of all teams.
The National Top League and Subtop League will start, as has been the practice since the 2019-2020 season, with a nationwide pre-competition.
What about those pool divisions?
When registering, associations specified what the team composition looks like. Based on these numbers and the players’ performance in the previous season, each team received a rating. That rating value determines which teams will play in the National Top Class or Subtop Class. How exactly that rating system works, you can read here.
Tilburg JO16-1 became national champions last weekend. Photo: Rob Romer
Then the teams were placed in the pools via a so-called ‘snake distribution’. That means: the strongest in pool A, the second strongest in pool B, and so on. To avoid teams having to travel extremely far, this snake distribution is not always strictly followed. In the Top Class, the snake division is almost entirely adhered to, with the exception of extreme travel distances such as Groningen-Maastricht. In the Subtop class, the snake distribution is optimized: the rating is always leading in this respect, but travel distance also plays a role. The poules are almost equal in strength (measured by rating).
Playing calendar
A month ago, the KNHB also announced the playing calendar for the 2025/2026 season. You can find the dates of the Tulip big league here. The tournament calendar for the (youngest) youth, seniors and 30+ and 45+ for the Bonds and District Competitions was published earlier.
by Hockey.nl
