Facts and figures for the new season

It’s all a matter of calculations – this was the basic idea of this in-depth compilation of numbers, numbers and more numbers right before the start of the VELUX EHF Champions League season 2013/14, from 0 to 174.

0 – No winners of the VELUX EHF FINAL4, which was installed in the 2009/10 season, managed to defend their title one year later in Cologne.
0 – Swiss champions Wacker Thun are the only of all 24 Group Phase participants without a single player to leave the squad over the summer.

3 – Three of those 24 teams have never been national champions in their countries: Rhein Neckar Löwen (Germany), Dunkerque (France) and La Rioja (Spain)
3 – All three winners of the wild card play-off matches will face domestic rivals in their groups. Płock vs. Kielce (POL), Metalurg vs. Vardar (MKD) and Hamburg vs. Flensburg (GER) will be the duels.

4 – The LANXESS Arena in Cologne has hosted the VELUX EHF FINAL4 four times in a row – making the next edition (31 May/1 June 2014) a little anniversary for the arena.
4 – Four out of ten clubs to have won the EHF Champions League since its beginning in 1993 have qualified for this season’s group phase, with a total of 12 trophies between them: Barcelona (seven titles), Kiel (3), Hamburg and Celje (each 1). The remaining six winners either no longer exist (Ciudad Real/3, Portland, Irun, Santander) or did not qualify (Magdeburg, Montpellier).
4 – Four of 24 teams have a coach, who is also currently coaching a national team: Plock (Manoel Cadenas/ESP), Vardar Skopje (Zoran Kastratovic/MNE), Minsk (Boris Denič/SLO) and Flensburg (Ljubomir Vranjes/SRB), although it is still not confirmed whether Vranjes will continue in this position. Four more coaches have been coaches of national teams in the past: Alfred Gislason (Kiel), Gudmundur Gudmundsson (Löwen, both ISL), Bogdan Wenta (Kielce/POL) and Lino Cervar (Matelurg Skopje/CRO).

6 – He is more a back-up than a regular player, but as Tomas Svensson still is nominated on the Rhein Neckar Löwen squad and the Swedish goalkeeper is the most successful EHF Champions League player with six titles (five with Barcelona, one with Irun). One trophy below ranks Barcelona’s Belarusian Siarhei Rutenka, who won his titles with Ciudad Real (3), Celje and Barcelona. Among those who have raised three trophies are two Kiel players (Dominik Klein, Christian Zeitz) and Barcelona goalkeeper Arpad Sterbik.
6 – Six debutants are among those 24 group phase participants. Three of them are “full” debutants, as they never played in in the competiton before (Zaporozhye, Thun, La Rioja), three more have qualified for the group phase in the new playing system for the first time: Dunkerque, Porto und Halmstad.

7 – Seven clubs have changed their coaches before this season: Zagreb, Zaporozhye, Plock, Kolding, Vardar Skopje, Minsk und Velenje.

9 – Hamburg and Minsk have signed the biggest number of newcomers of all 24 clubs with nine. On the other hand, Velenje have the biggest number of players to have left – also nine.

10 – Ten top scorers since the 2003/04 season are on the court this season – more than ever before: Hans Lindberg (Hamburg, 2013), Mikkel Hansen (Paris, 2012 with Kobenhavn), Uwe Gensheimer (Löwen, 2011), Filip Jicha (Kiel, 2009 and 2010), Kiril Lazarov (Barcelona, 2006 and 2008 with Veszprem), Nikola Karabatic (Barcelona, 2007 with Kiel), Siarhei Rutenka (Barcelona, 2004 and 2005 with Celje). The only one, who is missing, is Icelandic icon Olafur Stefansson, who was 2008 top scorer together with Lazarov.
10 – FC Barcelona have qualified for the final of the competition a record 10 times.

12 – Only half of the clubs, which had qualified for the last season's group phase have reached the same stage this season. The 12 teams not featuring this time around are: Bjerringbro (DEN), Madrid, Leon (both ESP), Chambery, Montpellier (both FRA), Berlin, Szeged (HUN), Constanta (ROU), Chekhovskie (RUS), Belgrade (SRB), Schaffhausen (SUI) and Sävehof (SWE).

13 – For the 13th straight time Veszprem have qualified for the group phase. Zagreb have the second best record with eleven straight participations, followed by Kiel and Barcelona (ten each).

15 – The 24 teams of the Group Phase represent 15 nations. Germany have four participants, Denmark, France, Spain, FYR Macedonia, Poland and Slovenia have two each.

20 – Zagreb are the record holders for the most EHF Champions League participations, as they are part of the competition for the 20th time in the 21st season. Veszprem and Celje are the hunt 19 times, followed again by Kiel and Barcelona, who march in step by 17 participations.

23 – No other Group Phase participants has more national championships on their tally as RK Zagreb, who became Croatian champions for the 23rd time last season. But again Veszprem are close behind by 22 titles in Hungary ahead of Barcelona (ESP/20), Celje (SLO) and Kiel (GER), with 18 titles each.

44 – Including all qualification matches, 44 teams were or are part of the VELUX EHF Champions League season 2013/14, representing 28 nations.

115 – The 24 teams have signed 115 newcomers for this season, compared to 99 players leaving the clubs.

120 – In ten rounds from September 2013 until February 2014 an overall of 120 Group Matches will be played. Including the 20 matches in the qualification stage, 16 last 16 duels and eight quarter-final matches, 9840 minutes in 164 games will be carried out before those four teams are confirmed, to face at the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne.

174 – Those 21 teams among the group phase participants, which have at least won one national championship, have collected a total of 174 domestic league titles.