THE rules for the new Longines League of Nations series were approved at the first in-person meeting of the FEI Board for 2023 at the FEI Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

The rules are effective for the 2024 season and available now on the FEI website. In brief, as outlined last week, the competition will consist of two rounds, whereby in the first round, all four athletes from all 10 teams (and potentially the host nation) participate with the three best scores to count.

The second round would see the best eight teams compete in reverse order - carrying forward their penalties from the first round - however with only three athletes per team and no drop score, which differs from the Longines FEI Nations Cup series which sees a drop score in both rounds. For the final, the same formal would be applied.

National Federations are invited to send teams with four athletes, each with two horses. Additional horses can be invited for specific competitions but on an equal basis for all athletes. If not qualified for the LLN Series via the Qualification Ranking, the home nation is allowed to participate with a team under the same conditions as the other LLN teams but will not earn any points.

The prize money at each leg of the competition is €700,000. The winning team receives €230,000 of that; €150,000 goes to the second placed team while third place picked up a cheque for €110,000. The prize money at the final is €1.6 million.

President Ingmar De Vos commented: “It was very good to see the entire FEI Board gather in Lausanne – a first since the Covid-19 pandemic – where we were able to take a number of important decisions, including the approval of the rules for the Longines League of Nations. This was the result of a comprehensive and successful consultation process, and it’s testament to the community’s ability to think out of the box, that we have been able to re-imagine this result. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the FEI Jumping Committee for their hard work and excellent solutions.”