The 2023–24 EHF European League is the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

tournament organised by

European Handball Federation The European Handball Federation (EHF) is the umbrella organisation for European handball. Founded on 17 November 1991, it is made of 50 member federations and two associated federations (England and Scotland), and is headquartered in Vienna, Au ...

(EHF), and the 4th season since it was renamed from the EHF Cup to the

EHF European League The EHF European League is an annual men's handball club competition organised by the European Handball Federation (EHF) since 1981. It is the second-tier competition of European club handball, ranking only below the EHF Champions League. Previo ...

. This is the first season under the new revamped format. The defending champions are Füchse Berlin.

SG Flensburg-Handewitt SG Flensburg-Handewitt is a professional handball club from Flensburg and Handewitt in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Currently, they compete in the Handball-Bundesliga and EHF European League. They play home matches at Flens-Arena. Since formin ...

won their second title after winning an all-German final against defending champions Füchse Berlin.

Format

The tournament is divided in the following phases: *Qualification round: 10 teams will be drawn into 5 different home and away ties. The 5 winners will advance to the group stage. *Group stage: The 27 teams already qualified along with the 5 winners of the qualification round will be drawn into 8 groups of 4 teams each, where they will play in a double round-robin format. The top 2 teams in each group will progress to the main round. Teams from the same country can't be drawn into the same group. *Main round: The 16 group winners and runners-up will be placed in 4 groups of 4 teams each where they will play a single round-robin. The winners will advance directly to the quarterfinals, while 2nd and 3rd placed teams will qualify for the play-offs. *Play-offs: The 2nd and 3rd placed teams from each group in the main round will play in 4 different home and away ties. The winners will progress to the quarterfinals. *Quarter-finals: The main round group winners will face a play-off winner to determine who makes it to the European League finals. *EL finals: They will be played in a Final 4 format similar to the Champions League.

Rankings

The rankings are based on the performances of each club from a respective country from a three-year period.This season, the EHF decided to make separate

rankings A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

for each club competition. *Associations 1–2 can have four clubs qualify. *Associations 3–9 can have three clubs qualify. *Associations 10–18 can have two clubs qualify. *Associations below the top 18 are allowed to enter apply one club for a potential wildcard. , -valign=top style="font-size:90%" ,

Qualified teams

The full list of teams qualified for each stage of the 2023–24 EHF European League was announced on 10 July 2023. The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round: *EL: European League title holders *EC: European Cup title holders *CW: Cup winners *CR: Cup runners-up *4th, 5th, etc.: League position of the previous season *^WC Accepted Wildcard

Schedule

All draws were held at the EHF headquarters in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria.

Draw

The Draw took place on the 21 July 2023. The only restriction was that clubs from the same country cannot be in the same group.

Qualification round

The draw for the qualification round was conducted on 18 July 2023. The first legs will be held on 26–27 August 2023 while the second legs will be held on 2–3 September 2023.

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was conducted on 21 July 2023 at the EHF office in Vienna.EHF European League Men groups to be revealed
EHF 18 July 2023 In the group stage, teams were ranked according to points (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). After completion of the group stage, if two or more teams have scored the same number of points, the ranking will be determined as follows:

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Main round

In the main round, the remaining sixteen teams merge into four groups of four, where they play the teams they didn't play in the group stage. Points from the group stage against the teams that advanced with each other are carried over. At the end of the main round, The four group winners advance to the quarter-finals, while the 2nd and 3rd place teams qualify for the play-offs.

Group I

Group II

Group III

Group IV

Knockout stage

In the playoffs, the eight teams ranked 2nd–3rd in Main round Groups I-IV play against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches. The four winning teams advance to the quarterfinals, where they are joined by the top teams of Main round Groups I-IV for another round of two-legged home-and-away matches. The four quarterfinal winners qualify for the final four tournament at the

Barclays Arena Barclays Arena (originally known as the Color Line Arena and formerly known as barclaycard arena and O2 World Hamburg) is a multipurpose arena in Hamburg, Germany. It opened in 2002 and can hold up to 16,000 people (13,800 or 12,947 for sportin ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, Germany.Final EXEC meeting in 2023 brings major decisions for 2024
EHF 18 December 2023

Format

Rankings

Qualified teams

Schedule

Draw

Qualification round

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Main round

Group I

Group II

Group III

Group IV

Knockout stage

Playoffs

Overview

=Matches

Quarterfinals

Overview

=Matches

Final Four

Bracket

Semifinals

Third place game

Final

Top goalscorers

See also

References