Star’s touch to determine the fate of clubs
Star’s touch to determine the fate of clubs
Big handball world comes to a little Danish town on Friday as Glostrup, on the outskirts of Copenhagen hosts the group stages draw both for the VELUX EHF Champions League and the Women’s EHF Champions League.
In the headquarters of SELECT SPORT, the EHF’s new ball partner, 28 men’s and 16 women’s teams will learn not only their opponents in the group but also their travel itinerary up until March 2017.
New ball to be presented, Jörgensen to help with the draw
During the draw event SELECT will also present the brand new official match ball which will be used in 208 men's and 108 women's matches in the 2016/17 season.
Yet again a player of the defending champions team will have the future of all clubs in her hands as Line Jörgensen will help carry out the draw this time around. The Danish right back was part of CSM Bucuresti’s stunning success last May in Budapest.
Women’s EHF Champions League Group Matches draw
The event starts on Wednesday at 13:00 hrs with the draw of the women’s group matches as 13 directly seeded teams plus three qualification groups’ winners will be divided in four pots of four teams. Teams will not be able to face opponents from the same country in the group.
Therefore after completing the draw of Pot 1 and Pot 2 FTC Rail-Cargo Budapest and FC Midtjylland will be drawn to possible groups first and only then the draw of remaining two teams of Pot 3 will follow.
The same procedure will be applied for Pot 4 when Rostov-Don will be drawn first to a possible group before the three qualifiers will be drawn.
CSM Bucuresti, the defending champions, are seeded in the second pot, while winners of five previous seasons Buducnost (2012 and 2015), Györ (2013 and 2014) and Larvik (2011) are in the top pot together with Vardar.
The first round of the group matches is set for 14-16 October 2016.
VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase draw
28 teams including two qualifiers are divided in eight pots of two teams in the Groups A&B and six pots in the Groups C&D.
The defending champions Vive Tauron Kielce will be drawn from the Pot 2 together with FC Barcelona Lassa, while last season’s runners-up Telekom Veszprem will be in the top pot together with the newly crowned German champions Rhein-Neckar Löwen.
The teams will not be able to face opponents from the same country in the group what applies to sides from France, Germany, Poland and Hungary.
The only exception will be the three-time winnersTHW Kiel, who will play against one of the two German Bundesliga rivals in the group – either Löwen or SG Flensburg-Handewitt.
As a result of country protection the Pot 4 in Groups C&D and Pots 5 and 6 in Groups A&B will not be drawn but automatically allocated.
The group phase will commence with the first round matches on 21-25 September, the last round in A and B is scheduled for 8-12 March 2017.
Already before the draw it has been determined in which rounds the teams will play home and in which away. Combined with the country protection rule at the draw four pairings of the first round are already fixed before the Friday’s draw.
The defending champions from Kielce will start their new campaign away at HC Meshkov Brest, while the second Polish team Orlen Wisla Plock will host FC Barcelona Lassa in the opening round.
Veszprem’s first trip of the season will lead the 2015 and 2016 finalists to Flensburg, while the second Hungarian team MOL-Pick Szeged start with a home match against the newly crowned German champions Rhein-Neckar Löwen.
Find the overview of home matches hosts in each round here
Where to follow
Apart from the live ticker on eurohandball.com, there will be an extensive coverage on @ehfcl Twitter account and the whole event will also be streamed on ehftv.com and Facebook Live.
The draw will be followed by interviews and reactions of the clubs’ representatives.
