Seeding for the qualification and group phase draw released

All clubs of the continent’s premium competition are to discover their European travel schedule up to March 2017 as the draws for the VELUX EHF Champions League 2016/17 Qualification and Group Phase will take place later this week.

Qualification draw

The eight participants of qualification tournaments are divided into four pots of two teams with Slovenian runners-up Gorenje Velenje and Portuguese chamions ABC/UMinho being seeded in the top pot.

The qualification draw will be carried out on Wednesday 29 June at 13:00 hrs at the EHF Office in Vienna and will be streamed on Facebook Live.

Pot 1: RK Gorenje Velenje (SLO), ABC/UMinho (POR)
Pot 2: Tatran Presov (SVK), Bregenz Handball (AUT)
Pot 3: Red Boys Differdange (LUX), Achilles Bocholt (BEL)
Pot 4: Cocks (FIN), Maccabi Castro Tel-Aviv (ISR)

Group Phase draw

The 26 teams directly seeded for the group phase and two qualifiers will learn their fate in the new season as the draw both for the Groups A&B and Groups C&D is to be conducted on Friday 1 July at 13:00 hrs in Glostrup, Denmark at the headquarters of SELECT SPORT, the EHF’s new ball partner.

There are 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.

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.

Home matches determined

The released seeding for the pots has also 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 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 will start with a home match against Rhein-Neckar Löwen.

Find the overview of home matches hosts in each round here

Seeding for the group phase draw:
 

Download the file with the seedings and all dates of the new season here