Floriana Young Stars and Qormi experienced mixed results following their participation in the Eurohockey Club Challenge in Slovenia.
While Floriana won promotion to Challenge III, Qormi were relegated to Challenge IV.
However, Qormi have not qualified for European hockey next season and their place will be taken by Sliema Hotsticks.
As Malta champions, Sliema will be eligible to take part in the highest-ranked tournament to represent their country and will therefore be participating in Challenge III, the position Young Stars earned with their promotion from Challenge IV.
Irony has it that as Knock Out winners, Young Stars qualified to take part in Euro competitions next year but they will have to take part in Challenge IV.
Qormi’s results in Challenge III does not do justice to their performance.
With a young squad, they lost narrowly to the Greek champions Asteras 1-3 and then lost another tight match against Norway’s Kringsja 1-0.
Despite these defeats, Qormi still were within a chance of making the play-offs for first place provided they beat Swedish champions Nacka by two clear goals.
Leading 3-1 at the start of the fourth quarter, Qormi seemed well on course to reach their goal.
But the team suffered a physical collapse in the latter stages as the Swedes leveled the match at three-all, condemning Qormi to a relegation play-off.
Qormi came up short against Lithuania’s Baltic Champs who cruised to a 5-3 win.
On the other hand, Floriana defied the odds as up to two months before the competitions their participation was put in question due to a series of injuries.
However, after beating the host country’s representatives Preda-novci 2-1 in the first match, their confidence and composure started to grow.
They went on to beat Greek representatives Napeos 2-1 to set up a top of the table clash with Ukraine representatives Berdyscev.
The Ukrainians proved too strong for Young Stars as they registered a 5-3 win.
Still, Young Stars had still done enough to earn a place in a promotion play-off against Bulgarian champions Toshevo.
Qormi came from a goal down to coast to a 5-3 win and secure promotion alongside Berdyscev.