EHF Press Statement

EHF Men’s Champions League gears up for the semi-finals!

Vienna, 22 March 2007 – The 2006/07 EHF Men’s Champions League turned a corner this season, launching a new “fresh and clean” branding to the Handball Champions League product on the sporting market, which has been spoken of as being a breakthrough for European club handball in general.

Alongside the newly developed Corporate Event Identity, the Regulations for the Men’s Champions League were completely revised, going into greater detail in the event management side of the competition. A Broadcasters’ Manual and the selection of a pool of EHF Marketing Supervisors to support both the clubs and the marketing and TV partners have also proven their value so far in the course of this season. The new “blue and blue lagoon” flooring system by Gerflor adds to the overall look of the matches and has already developed trademark status with handball fans in the arena and at home.

This elite competition is now entering the semi-final phase. Over the next two consecutive weekends – 23 – 25.03 & 30.03 – 01.04 – the four remaining clubs will fight it out for a place in this season’s final: Portland San Antonio was runner-up last year in the EHF Champions League. This season, they beat the reigning champion to secure the place in the semis. Their opponent: THW Kiel, a European great, with a collection of titles, yet the Champions League title still eludes them! SG Flensburg-Handewitt is the second German team and the first German team to conquer FC Barcelona Cifec in the Champions League race to the finals. CBM Valladolid is the newcomer to the Champions League but no stranger to European Cup finals. They were runner-up in last season’s Cup Winners’ Cup.

Handball in general is currently enjoying a boom. A recent Sport+Markt study confirms the trend with 72% of Germans over the age of 14 now interested in handball. The Handball Champions League is no exception. The EHF works with a number of TV partners to offer the product to the sporting world. One such partner is Eurosport, with 478 000 viewers in Germany tuning in for the quarterfinal clash between the German side of Vfl Gummersbach against the Spaniards CBM Valladolid. Werner Starz of Eurosport confirms their commitment to the Handball Champions League, “…everything is just right at the moment in handball, after the boom caused by the World Championship in Germany, the club teams of Europe are now playing Champions League handball on the highest of levels….the coverage on Eurosport and Eurosport 2 has been welcomed by our fans. Our team, Jürgen Höthker and Heiner Brand provide expertise commentary. We are happy that we have joined our partner, the EHF, in making this step forward.”

Peter Vargo, EHF Marketing GmbH Director confirms the upwards trend of the EHF Champions League, “… we are striving to drive the product forward. We have taken it into another dimension this season but work is by no means over. We work hard and strategically with all our partners to offer the sporting market a top class product. We want the Handball Champions League to be celebrated by sports’ fans throughout Europe and even beyond.”

EHF Champions League on the web

The EHF Champions League can also be followed online at www.ehfCL.com, with extensive news, interviews and features from the Champions League. This weekend’s coverage will include a live ticker from the SG-Flensburg-Handewitt match against CBM Valladolid on Friday at 19:45.

TV coverage

The Men’s Champions League Semi-finals can be watched on the following channels this coming weekend:

and the 2^nd leg (please look at www.ehfCLcom for additional coverage not yet finalised):

Match Times

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Contact:

Sian Rowland

European Handball Federation

Corporate Communications Manager

Tel: +43-1-801-51-161

rowland@eurohandball.com