Boarding completed!

Since Sunday evening all 24 Group Phase participants for the 2013/2014 season of the VELUX EHF Champions League are confirmed. Here are the main facts and figures after the qualification stage has been completed:

New nations

The 24 teams represent 15 nations, exactly the same number as in the previous season. Germany have the biggest number of clubs (4), followed by Denmark, Spain, France, FYR Macedonia, Poland and Slovenia (each 2).

Belarus, Croatia, Hungary, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden and Ukraine have one team each in the Group Phase. The only new nations compared to the previous season are Portugal and Ukraine, in contrast to 2012/13, Serbia and Romania have no team in the Group Phase.

New clubs

Six of those 24 teams are newcomers in the competition: Naturhouse La Rioja (Spain), Dunkerque HB (France), FC Porto (Portugal), Drott Halmstad (Sweden), Wacker Thun (Switzerland) and Motor Zaporozhye (Ukraine).

And only 12 teams of those, who were part of the 2012/2013 Group Phase, are back in this season: Hamburg, Flensburg, Veszprém, Kiel, Celje, Kielce, Metalurg, Velenje, St. Petersburg, Barcelona, Minsk and Zagreb – which means 50 percent new teams compared to one year ago.

Domestic duels

All three winners of the Wild Card play-off matches will face domestic rivals in the Group Stage. Metalurg Skopje play against their Macedonian opponent Vardar Skopje in Group C like in their opener in the multi-national SEHA League.

Like in the previous season (Group Phase and later-on quarter-finals) defending champions HSV Hamburg will face their local Germans rival SG Flensburg-Handewitt in Group D and Wisła Płock will have the re-matches of the Polish league finals against Vive Targi Kielce in Group B – so only Group A will have no domestic encounters.

Big names arrive from qualification

For the first time ever the defending champions needed to go through the qualification stage, and HSV Hamburg made it by a slight one goal difference against Füchse Berlin.

So, like in all previous seasons, the defending champions are part of the Group Phase. One defending champion made it to the Group Phase with his new club: Marcin Lijewski, who transferred from HSV to Polish side from Płock.

Two more former Champions League winners also return with their new teams: David Davis, who joined FC Porto after the end of Atlético Madrid, and Mikkel Aguirrezabalaga, former player of FC Barcelona, who joined Dinamo Minsk.

Big names on the benches

Legendary Lino Červar, who led the Croatian team to gold at the Olympic Games 2004 and the World Championship 2003, arrives from qualification with his club team Metalurg Skopje.

Martin Schwalb, the only German coach to win the VELUX EHF Champions League, is also back with HSV Hamburg – and two current national team coaches have also made it to the Group Stage with their club teams: Boris Denič (Dinamo Minsk/Slovenia) and Manolo Cadenas (Wisła Płock/Spain).

Sergii Bebeshko is the only of those coaches, who made it with two different teams in the current and the last season from Qualification to Group Phase: after Dinamo Minsk, he joined the elite now with Motor Zaporozhye.

VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase 2013/14:

Group A: MKB-MVM Veszprém (HUN), HC Croatia Osiguranje Zagreb (CRO), St. Petersburg HC (RUS), Rhein Neckar Löwen (GER), Celje Pivovarna Laško (SLO), HC Motor Zaporozhye (UKR)

Group B: THW Kiel (GER), KS Vive Targi Kielce (POL), Orlen Wisła Płock (POL), KIF Kolding København (DEN), Dunkerque HB Grand Littoral (FRA), FC Porto Vitalis (POR)

Group C: FC Barcelona (ESP), PSG Handball (FRA), HC Vardar PRO - Skopje (MKD), Wacker Thun (SUI), HC Dinamo Minsk (BLR), HC Metalurg (MKD)

Group D: Aalborg Handball (DEN), RK Gorenje Velenje (SLO), SG Flensburg Handewitt (GER), Naturhouse La Rioja (ESP), HK DROTT Halmstad (SWE), HSV Hamburg (GER)