From September 2025, England Hockey is launching a new membership model designed to secure the future of the sport by increasing access, visibility, and support for clubs across the country. This refreshed approach places inclusion, participation, and development at its heart. Key to the change is a renewed focus on growing the game in state schools with the support of School Games Organisers, helping more young people discover hockey. Free coaching courses will increase the number of qualified coaches in clubs, ensuring players at every level are supported and developed, while the continuation of our free-to-air broadcast deal with Channel 4 brings top-level hockey into homes nationwide—raising the sport’s profile like never before.
These changes matter because they represent a step-change in how England Hockey supports the game from the grassroots up. The new membership model offers more than just benefits - it provides the tools to grow your club, diversify participation, and future-proof the sport.
England Hockey’s new membership model was carefully designed with extensive input from our hockey community. A comprehensive research project, conducted in November 2024 by the sports consultancy Two Circles, gathered feedback from 2,412 respondents representing players, parents, officials, and club leaders across 554 clubs. This research provided a strong foundation for our membership changes, ensuring they were tailored to the needs of the community and the future of hockey.
These research results, along with more detailed overviews of the changes to membership for the 25/26 season can be found in the downloads on this page.
