27 teams on the Women's Challenge Cup starting grid

The European Handball Federation has released the seeding for the new season of the Women’s Challenge Cup. As the defending champions Rocasa Gran Canaria will play in the DELO WOMEN'S EHF Champions League 2019/20 in the new season the highest seeded team of the new edition will be another Spanish team Aula A. de Valladolid.

Two former Challenge Cup winners, 2007 holders ZRK Naisa from Serbia and 2017 champions Lokomotiva Zagreb from Croatia together are directly seeded for the Last 16 round together with three other sides and will join the action only in February 2020.

There will be no matches in Round 1 and 2 and all 22 other teams will start in Round 3 with the first leg scheduled for 9/10 November and second leg for 16/17 November.

Draw on 16 July

The Round 3 pairings will be determined by the draw on Tuesday 16 July at 11 am at the EHF Office and the teams will be divided into two pots of 11 teams.

The upcoming 2019/20 season will be the last one which will see the competition under the Challenge Cup name. From 2020/21 the third-tier competition will be called the EHF Cup.

See the complete seeding list here