By Gary Anderson

January 8 - Aachen will not play host to a leg of the 2014 Nations Cup due to finaincial constraints it has been announced ©Bongarts/Getty Images Aachen, which hosts the annual Word Equestrian Festival, will not be one of the stops on the 2014 Nations Cup jumping series due to "financial reasons" according to the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) which today announced the hosts for the 20-leg competition.

The German town had been a host venue for the inaugural Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup series last year but despite lengthy discussions between the FEI and organisers of the Aachen World Equestrian Festival, an agreement to host one of the 16 European legs failed to materialise and Lummen in Belgium has been chosen to take its place.

"Regretfully, at the time of the December 31 deadline for declaration of participation, we were informed by the German National Federation that Aachen was unable to meet the commercial requirements and therefore would not be part of the Furusiyya series in 2014," said FEI Jumping Committee chairman John Madden.

Lummen will now form part of the Europe Division One qualifiers and will be joined by La Baule, France; Rome; St Gallen; Rotterdam; Falsterbo, Sweden; Hickstead and Dublin.

Linz-Ebelsberg in Austria will host the first leg of the Europe Division Two qualifiers followed by Copenhagen; Lisbon; Sopot, Poland; Budapest; Gijon, Spain; Bratislava; and Arezzo, San Marino.

The North and Central America and Caribbean League will stage three qualifying events beginning in Wellington, Florida before moving on to Coapexpan in Mexico and Calgary, Canada, while Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will host the sole Middle East League qualifier which is due to start the series on February 5 to 7.

Following the completion of all 20 qualifiers, the series final will take place at the Real Club de Polo of Barcelona - which hosted the equestrian events at the 1992 Olympic Games - for the second year-in-a-row from October 9 to 12.

Barcelona will once again host the final of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup in October ©Getty Images Barcelona will once again host the final of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup in October
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The 2014 Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup will be the second year of the global jumping competition since it was rebranded following a sponsorship deal between the FEI and the Saudi Equestrian Fund announced in May 2012.

"Following the success of last year's inaugural Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup series and the fantastic final in Barcelona, we are looking forward to another fabulous Furusiyya season starting at Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates next month," said Madden.

"We are planning 20 qualifiers building up to the final, which will once again be hosted in Barcelona, and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to HH Prince Faisal and the Saudi Equestrian Fund for their belief in and support of the series.

"Without that support, the revitalisation of the Nations Cup to create the brilliant series that we now have would simply not have been possible."

Following further discussions between the FEI and national federations, the 2014 Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup schedule will be officially confirmed at the beginning of February.

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