National champions men: Part 1 - Central Europe

Only 25 national leagues in Europe will provide teams for the 2013/14 VELUX EHF Champions League season. In five parts, ehfCL.com will shine the spotlight on each of the teams who qualified for the next edition of Europe's top flight and their race for the ticket in their respective national competitions. The participation of all teams in the next season is still subject to the confirmation by the EHF Executive Committee on 21 June.

The first part of the series is dedicated to teams from Central Europe - Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Austria.

POLAND (KS Vive Targi Kielce)

Vive Targi Kielce have many reasons to celebrate the past season as the most successful in their 48-year history. Not only did they finish third in the VELUX EHF Champions League (as the newcomers to the final tournament in Cologne), they also recorded their jubilee tenth national league title.

Kielce won the regular season of the Polish league by winning 21 out of 22 matches. Their only defeat of the season came in the eight round on the court of their arch-rivals from Orlen Wisła Płock. On the way to the final they eliminated Piotrków in the quarter-finals (2:0 in the best-of-three series) and Azoty-Puławy in the semi-final (3:0 in the best-of-five series). In the final race for the only Polish berth amon Europe's elite, Kielce defeated Płock 3:0 avenging for the only setback of the domestic campaign. They crowned their near perfect season with their tenth Polish Cup triumph.

HUNGARY (MKB Veszprém KC)

It was a fierce fight for the only Hungarian ticket in the league from the opening round between both VELUX EHF Champions League 2012/13 participants and after a shocking seven-goal victory in October Pick Szeged held the upper hand. However, it was the only defeat of the season for the star-studded team of Veszprém.

The VELUX EHF Champions League quarter-finalists beat Szeged by eight in the rematch and won the regular season by one point.  Both rivals earned a direct passage to the top four of play-offs, avoiding quater-finals. Veszprém maintained the clean sheet in the play-off as they ousted Tatabánya followed by two convincing victories over Szeged and raised the championship title for the 21st time in the club's history.

SLOVAKIA (Tatran Prešov)

Tatran Prešov's road to their ninth Slovakian title and seventh in a row was more challenging than usually. Prešov, who also lifted the former Czecho-Slovakian trophy three times in the federal past, won the regular season of the national extraleague, but lost seven points after three draws and two defeats.

Both Považská Bystrica in the semi-final and Sporta Hlohovec in the final of the Final Four gave Prešov a good run for their Money. The shaky performance in the autumn resulted in a change of the head coach, when Djordje Rašić was replaced by Roman Lamač, but even the latter will not carry on at the helm as the former national coach Peter Hatalčík is set to make a return to Tatran after nine years away.

SLOVENIA (RK Gorenje Velenje and RK Celje Pivovarna Laško)

Gorenje Velenje defended their national title in an impressive fashion, after losing only two matches in a very tight Slovenian league. Both their trips to the Adriatic coast in the regular season and in the championship round were fruitless as they were beaten twice by Cimos Koper, but as those were the only setbacks of their domestic season they still could win the title with a clear seven point difference ahead of record champions from Celje.

They won their third Slovenian title in five years, but making that four next season will be quite difficult, with five key players leaving Velenje over the summer (Fahrudin Melić to Paris HB, Dino Bajram to Pfadi Winterthur, Jure Dolenec and Matej Gaber to Montpellier, Marko Bezjak to Magdeburg). Celje also made their way to the VELUX EHF Champions League in second place.

AUSTRIA (Alpla HC Hard)

From the first round of the preliminary round it was a tug-of-war affair between two clubs in the Austrian HLA league. Fivers WAT Margareten won the first episode in the preliminary round, followed by the defending champions of Alpla HC Hard who had the same points (28 out of 18 matches), but the worse goal difference.

Hard earned the top seed for the semi-finals by winning the main round and won the best-of-three series against Krems, while Fivers swept Bregenz. In the final Vienna-based club won the first match at Lake Constance, but failed to secure the title at home and lost the decisive duel of the thrilling series in Hard by two goals. Alpla clinched their third title in club’s history and paved their way to the VELUX EHF Champions League.