Group Phase Draw goes live on Thursday
All handball fans can follow the last club handball draw event of the year on various channels on Thursday, 4 December as the EHF Cup Group Phase Draw takes place at 11:00 hrs local time at the EHF Office in Vienna.
There will be a live streaming from the event which will also cover the draw of the Men's Challenge Cup Last 16 at 10:30 hrs local time.
Thanks to the streaming the fans will be also able to follow the post-draw reactions of club representatives present at the draw.
Furthermore, the up-to-the-second coverage of both draws will be available via liveticker on www.eurohandball.com and on @ehfmedia Twitter channel.
Several top clubs in four pots
Remaining 16 teams in the third edition of the reformed competition will learn names of their next opponents. Based on the competition's ranking four pots have been determined with four teams in each.
There will be a country protection applied during the draw as two teams from the same country cannot meet in the same group. However this will apply only to the three German teams as both Danish sides are in the same pot and other 11 countries have each just one team in the competition.
There are several household names of European handball in all four pots including the 2012/13 VELUX EHF Champions League winners HSV Hamburg or the 2012 VELUX EHF FINAL4 participants and the last season's EHF Cup Finals hosts Füchse Berlin. HCM Constanta are another regulars from the European top flight, while Denmark's Skjern Handbold won twice the Challenge Cup in the past and their domestic rivals Team Tvis Holstebro, who reached the EHF Cup Finals in 2013.
First round on 14/15 February
Just two weeks after the gold medal match of the IHF World Championsip in Qatar the EHF Cup Group Phase action will start with the Round 1 matches. The group phase will be played in a round-robin system with six rounds.
According to the competition’s regulations and as in the previous seasons, if one of the group phase participants will be awarded with the rights to host the EHF Cup Finals, their team can qualify directly for the final tournament from the group phase if they finish in first place in their group or as one of the three best-ranked second placed teams.
In this case only three quarter-final matches will be played and the worst second ranked team will be eliminated. Only results from matches against group winners and third ranked teams will be counted in the ranking of teams from second positions.
If the event organiser finishes as the worst second placed team then they must play in the quarter-finals to qualify.
If hosts finish third or fourth in their group, there will be also four quarter-finals. The organisers will not take part at the final tournament, but still they will host the event.
Seedings for the EHF Cup Group Phase Draw
Vienna, Thursday, 4 December, 11:00 hrs local time
Pot 1
HSV Hamburg (GER)
MT Melsungen (GER)
Futebol Clube do Porto (POR)
HCM Constanta (ROU)
Pot 2
Fraikin BM. Granollers (ESP)
Balatonfüredi KSE (HUN)
Haslum Handballklubb (NOR)
HC Vojvodina (SRB)
Pot 3
Füchse Berlin (GER)
St. Petersburg HC (RUS)
Gorenje Velenje (SLO)
Eskilstuna Guif (SWE)
Pot 4
RK Nexe (CRO)
Skjern Handbold (DEN)
Team Tvis Holstebro (DEN)
Pfadi Winterthur (SUI)
Draw procedure:
Step 1: 4 teams of Pot 1 are placed to row 1
Step 2: 4 teams of Pot 2 are placed to row 2
Step 3: Füchse Berlin of Pot 3 are placed to row 3 to avoid the groups with Hamburg and Melsungen
Step 4: Remaining 3 teams of Pot 3 are placed to row 3
Step 5: 4 teams of Pot 4 are placed to row 4
TEXT: EHF / br
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