The teams, which were approved by the EHF Executive Committee earlier this week will enter Tuesday’s draw in Vienna in four pots. In order to avoid many allocations due to the country protection, the EHF has adjusted the draw procedure and while there will be five teams in Pot 1 and Pot 3, there will be four clubs in the second pot and only two in Pot 4.
Country protection will still be applied, therefore, the Pot 1 and Pot 2 teams from Hungary, France, Romania and Denmark will not meet their national league opponents in the group phase. However, this will not apply on the third team from Denmark and Hungary in Pot 4 who will inevitably face one of their domestic league rivals.
The group phase will be played in a round-robin format. After 14 rounds, the top two teams in each group will qualify directly for the quarter-finals, while the teams that finish in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth places will contest the play-offs. The lowest-ranked two clubs in each group will be eliminated from the competition at the end of the group phase.
The first round is scheduled for 9-10 September 2023.
Draw procedure:
Step 1: 5 teams from Pot 1 drawn to five places out these six - A1, B1, A2, B2, A3, B3 (either A3 or B3 will remain vacant)
Step 2: 4 teams from Pot 2 drawn to four places out of these five - A3 or B3, A4, B4, A5, B5 (one position will remain vacant)
Step 3: 5 teams from Pot 3 drawn to five places - one from the previous step, A6, B6, A7, B7
Step 4: 2 teams from Pot 4 drawn to two remaining positions A8 and B8 (no country protection)
Follow the draw live
The group phase draw will take place on Tuesday 27 June at 11:00 CEST in Vienna and will be streamed on EHFTV and the Home of Handball YouTube channel.
EHF Champions League Women 2023/24 group phase
POT 1
NOR - Vipers Kristiansand
HUN - Györi Audi ETO KC
FRA - Metz Handball
DEN - Team Esbjerg
ROU - CSM București
POT 2
HUN - FTC Rail-Cargo Hungaria
FRA - Brest Bretagne Handball
DEN - Odense Håndbold
ROU - CS Rapid București
POT 3
SLO - Krim Mercator Ljubljana
MNE - WHC Buducnost
GER - SG BBM Bietigheim
SWE - IK Sävehof
POL - MKS Zaglebie Lubin
POT 4
DEN - Ikast Håndbold
HUN - DVSC Schaeffler
