Official VELUX EHF Men's Champions League Press Conference

At today's official EHF Men's Champions League Opening Press Conference, the marketing arm of the European Handball Federation, EHF Marketing GmbH, was proud to announce an exciting development in the EHF Men’s Champions League, as international company, the VELUX Group, becomes the title sponsor of the EHF Men’s Champions League.

The partnership with the VELUX Group, one of the strongest brands in the global building materials sector, will also mean a new name and a new look for Europe’s premier club handball competition.

From the start of the Group Phase, the new name for the competition will be the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League. The 2010/2011 season’s final weekend in the LANXESS arena, Cologne on 28 and 29 May 2011 will similarly be known as the VELUX EHF FINAL4.

The partnership contract was signed at the press conference by EHF Secretary General Michael Wiederer, Managing Director of EHF Marketing Peter Vargo, VELUX EHF FINAL4 Ambassador Stefan Lövgren and Michael Rasmussen, Chief Marketing Officer of the VELUX group.

VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League 2010/2011

The 2010/2011 season sees a fresh challenge for Europe’s top 24 men’s clubs as the continent’s premier club handball competition is renamed the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League, following a new cooperation with title partner, the VELUX Group.

In 264 days we will know the title holder of the 18th VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League season. The road to Cologne is a very long one: From the first ball thrown in the Group Phase of the upcoming season on 22nd of September until the final whistle of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in the LANXESS arena it will take 249 days. 8880 minutes will be played in the 148 VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League matches from the group phase on, about 400 players from 24 teams coming from 15 nations will participate in the major club competition in the world of handball.

It will take 16 match days including the VELUX EHF FINAL4 weekend to know the winner – the same as last season. The successfully newly introduced playing system of the season 2009/2010 will continue in the same way.

The Group Phase will be played within ten match days from September 2010 until the beginning of March 2011. So every Group Phase participant has five matches on home soil. Then the each four top ranked teams will meet in the Last 16 (at the end of March, beginning of April), the first knock-out stage, played in two legs (home and away matches).

The winners of those last 16 matches are only one step away from the VELUX EHF FINAL4 – the Quarterfinals (20.4.-1.5.). Those four winners of the Quarterfinals have reached the final destination Cologne – they will play for the trophy on 28/29 May, first in the semi-finals, then in the Final and the third/fourth play-off.

There are three newcomers in the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League: Danish champion, Aab Handball, St. Petersburg HC (runners-up in Russia) and GC Dinamo Minsk have qualified for the very first time. RK Zagreb is the record holder, as the Croatian champion is the only team which has played in all previous 18 CL seasons since the start in 1993 ahead of ZK Celje (Slovenia/17 times) and MKB Veszprem (Hungary/16 times).

Record champion of the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League is still FC Barcelona, last season’s finalist in Cologne. The Catalans have won the trophy six times. Another fact shows the strength of this season’s CL: 14 of the 17 previous Champions League winners have qualified for the 2010/2011 edition.

Find more information and a detailed playing schedule here.