The 2009 series will start at La Baule in France, then travel to Rome, St Gallen, Falsterbo in Sweden, Rotterdam, Aachen and Hickstead before culminating in Dublin.

There had been fears that Hickstead's place could be in danger.

Daisy Bunn of Hickstead said: "We are absolutely over the moon.

"We went to Barcelona [for the final show of the 2008 series] with a feeling of trepidation but are absolutely delighted."

But he first vice-president of the the world governing body FEI, Sven Holmberg, said the long-term plan for the series was to include more nations and move the sport outside Europe to enable more countries to take part at top level.

He said: "There has been criticism of the current format which has been described as 'a closed shop' with very little opportunity for new countries to break in, and with the same countries re-entering the series after being relegated."

A proposed new format was presented in April at a meeting in Interlaken, Switzerland, and further developed following discussions in Aachen in July and a meeting of the FEI Jumping Committee at FEI headquarters in Lausanne last wekk.

Each competition will offer at least €300,000 (£240,000) in prizemoney with an additional €300,000 (£240,000) on offer in the Grand Prix at each venue.

The sponsor will provide the Nations' Cup prizefund and the show organiser will provide the Grand Prix prize fund.

The FEI said that they are currently talking to a potential new sponsor for the revamped series.

There will be a maximum of eight events with a total of 10 teams.

If the host country is not qualified, the home team is entitled to participate at the event.

There will be a maximum of five riders and 12 horses from each nation, and in the first season three teams will qualify through the Rolex World Rankings as at December 31, 2008.

After the first year, the format will be reviewed and modified, the FEI said.

Ireland gained automatic qualification to when finishing fifth on the 2008 Samsung Super League leaderboard following a good fourth-place closing effort at the final in Barcelona last Sunday, and can now look forward to hosting the top 10 teams in the world at the RDS next August.

Samsung's withdrawal from equestrian after 20 years has created the environment for change, but some riders and show organisers have expressed concerns because the Super League concept had proven very popular.

But news of the increased prize money has helped ease fears.