England crash out of EuroHockey 2025 medal contention

The England women’s hockey team followed their male counterparts in missing out on the chance to compete for medals in the 2025 EuroHockey tournament currently under way in Germany.

After starting the tournament with a convincing 3-0 win over Scotland on 19th August, the women went on to lose 2-0 to Belgium before suffering their first defeat to Spain in the Euros in 30 years, going down 2-1 on 13th August.

This means that the women exit at the quarter-final stage and will now leave their fourth EuroHockey tournament in a row without a medal, making it eight years since they stood on the podium in the tournament.

Both the men’s and women’s games are under intense scrutiny as a result of the significant amount of funding Great Britain Hockey has received relative to their poor recent performances.

For the 2024 Paris Olympic cycle, UK Sport allocated £13.7 million to hockey programs across Great Britain (covering both men’s and women’s teams combined). However they returned empty handed from Olympics meaning that hockey had the most funding of any sport in which GB did not win a medal in Paris 2024.

With £14.7 million allocated for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic cycle – the sixth largest amount out of all 31 Olympic sports – both the men’s and women’s hockey teams will be under intense pressure to start delivering a return on that investment.