Denmark reigns the new women's club ranking for 2017/18

Denmark has maintained its position on the throne of the European women's club handball at least for another year after the European Handball Federation has released the new ranking list for the 2017/18 season.

Mainly thanks to a combined effort of Team Tvis Holstebro, which won the last edition of the Women’s Cup Winners’ Cup and FC Midtjylland which reached the Champions League quarter-final, Denmark was able to defend its leading position ahead of Hungary.

Both countries surpassed 100-point milestone and can claim two places in the 2017/18 season of the Women's EHF Champions League again and also another three in the new Women’s EHF Cup.

The leading duo is followed by Russia and Norway. Courtesy of the stunning success of CSM Bucuresti at the last Women’s EHF FINAL4 in Budapest Romania moved to the fifth rank overtaking Germany and France.

While Cyprus plummeted by record six places from 33 to the very bottom of the ranking, the biggest move upwards was achieved by Great Britain which climbed five places from 38 to 33, followed by Slovakia which has risen to 22nd place (from 26th) securing a direct place in the Champions League for their next champions.

The federations from 3 to 7 can field one team in the top flight and three in the EHF Cup, while members from 8 to 24 can claim one place in the Champions League, one in the EHF Cup and two in the Challenge Cup.

Countries ranked 25-39 have one team in the EHF Cup and three in the third-tier, while all remaining member federations have just four places in the Challenge Cup as they did not take part in any competitions in the previous three seasons.

The EHF Ranking list is the main criteria for distribution of places to the EHF member federations in the different competitions. The newest ranking list is a summary of results in all four EHF club competitions of the seasons 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16.

In addition each federation has the right to ask for an upgrade from a lower-tier competition to the higher –either from the EHF Cup to the Women’s EHF Champions League or from the Challenge Cup to the EHF Cup.