The EHF has published the schedule for Tuesday’s Champions League draw. Loki is waiting for the opponents from the fourth hat.

As before, there will be two groups of eight in the women’s handball Champions League in the 2023/24 season. The European Handball Association will hold the draw for the group stage next week on Tuesday, starting at 11 a.m. in Vienna.

The EHF, on its official website, published today the division of the hats. This year, for the first time, three teams from Denmark and Hungary will start. In order to avoid all three teams from the same country being in the same group, the EHF modified the draw procedure.

While the 1st and 3rd hats will have five teams, the second hat will have four and the fourth only two. National defense is still valid, so the Hungarian, French, Romanian and Danish Pot 1 and Pot 2 teams will not meet their domestic rivals in the group stage. This means that Győr Audi ETO and FTC-Rail Cargo Hungária will definitely be in a separate group.

The third Danish and Hungarian teams, on the other hand, will inevitably be drawn with teams from the same nation. From our point of view, the question is whether we will be placed in a group with Fradi or Győr. At the draw, the fate of the first, second and third hat teams will be decided, and finally, the placement of the two fourth hat teams will complete the group classification. This means that Loki and Ikast definitely cannot be in the same group.

The group stage is played in a round-robin format. After 14 rounds, the top two teams in each group advance directly to the quarterfinals, while the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-placed teams continue in the playoffs. The two lowest-scoring clubs are eliminated at the end of the group stage.

The final schedule will not be published by the EHF on the day of the draw, because it requires further negotiations based on, among other things, feedback from the teams, occupancy of the sports halls, and television broadcasts. The exact schedule of the group matches will be announced by the European Handball Association a few days after the draw.

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