Boarding for the new season in Europe’s top-level women’s club competition was completed Monday with the announcement of the line-up of teams. A total of 16 teams from 11 nations are eager to start their EHF Champions League 2022/23 campaigns.
The question who they are going to play against in the group phase will be answered during the draw in Vienna on Friday 1 July at 11:00 CEST.
The draw will be streamed live on EHFTV and the EHF Champions League Facebook page, with further coverage on the dedicated social media channels and eurohandball.com.
Like in the past two seasons, the EHF Champions League Women 2022/23 will start with two groups of eight teams each, with the top-six ranked teams qualifying for the knockout phase. Both the group winners and runners-up from each group will be heading directly into the quarter-finals, and the teams ranked third through sixth will advance to the play-offs.
So, how will the 16 teams be divided into the two groups at Friday's draw?
This is how it works: all teams have been placed in four pots prior to the draw:
Pot 1
Vipers Kristiansand (NOR)
Györi Audi ETO KC (HUN)
Metz Handball (FRA)
Odense Håndbold (DEN)
Pot 2
CS Rapid Bucuresti (ROU)
WHC Buducnost BEMAX (MNE)
Krim Mercator Ljubljana (SLO)
SG BBM Bietigheim (GER)
Pot 3
Storhamar Håndball Elite (NOR)
FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria (HUN)
Brest Bretagne Handball (FRA)
Team Esbjerg (DEN)
Pot 4
DHK Banik Most (CZE)
HC Lokomotiva Zagreb (CRO)
Kastamonu Belediye GSK (TUR)
CSM Bucuresti (ROU)
From here, the draw procedure will be:
- STEP 1: A team from Pot 1 is drawn to Row 1 or 2 (4x)
- STEP 2: A team from Pot 2 is drawn to Row 3 or 4 (4x)
- STEP 3: All teams from Pot 3 are allocated to Rows 5 and 6 (no draw)
- STEP 4: CSM Bucuresti are allocated to Row 7 or 8 (no draw)
- STEP 5: Most, Zagreb and Kastamonu are drawn to Row 7 or 8
Some teams have to be allocated due to the country protection rule: teams from the same nation cannot be drawn into the same group.
