The 2023–24 Women's EHF Champions League was the 31st edition of Europe's premier 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, running from 9 September 2023 to 2 June 2024. Vipers Kristiansand were the defending champions but were eliminated by Győri Audi ETO KC in the quarterfinals. Győri Audi ETO KC went on to win their sixth title with a finals win over

SG BBM Bietigheim HB Ludwigsburg is a German professional handball club from Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg. Its women's team is playing in the Handball-Bundesliga Frauen, and internationally in the Women's EHF Champions League, EHF Champions League. The men's te ...

Format

The tournament used the same format as the previous three seasons. The competition began with a group stage featuring sixteen teams divided into two groups. Matches were played in a double round-robin system with home-and-away fixtures, fourteen in total for each team. In Groups A and B, the top two teams automatically qualified for the quarter-finals, with teams ranked 3rd to 6th entered the playoff round. The knockout stage included four rounds: the playoffs, quarter-finals, and a final-four tournament comprising two semifinals and the final. In the playoffs, eight teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches (third-placed in group A plays sixth-placed group B; fourth-placed group A plays fifth-placed group B, etc.). The four aggregate winners of the playoffs advanced to the quarterfinals, joining the top-two teams of Groups A and B. The eight quarterfinalist teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches, with the four aggregate winners qualifying to the final-four tournament. In the final four tournament, the semifinals and the final were played as single matches at a pre-selected host venue.

Rankings

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. The rankings are based on the performances from the three most recent seasons. *Associations 1–9 had their league champion qualify for the Group Stage and apply up to two wildcards. *The Association that won the past season's

Women's EHF European League The Women's EHF European League is an annual competition for women's handball clubs of Europe. It is organized by the European Handball Federation, EHF. It is currently the second-tier competition of European club handball, ranking only below the ...

had their league champion and runner up qualified for the Group Stage and applied for one wildcard. *Associations below the top 9 had their league champion apply for a wildcard.

Teams

21 teams applied for a place, with nine having a fixed place. For the first time ever, countries were allowed to apply two clubs for a wildcard. The final list was announced in June 20 2023, which included Hungary and Denmark having three participating teams for the first time. The fixed place for Russia was vacant since the country and its clubs were not admitted to participate in the EHF competitions due to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. *^WC Accepted wildcards

Draw

The draw took place on 27 June 2023.

Group stage

The 16 teams were drawn into 2 groups of eight. In regards to Hungary and Denmark, who have three clubs in the Group Stage, a maximum of two clubs from those countries could be drawn into the same group. 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 was determined as follows: #Highest number of points in matches between the teams directly involved; #Superior goal difference in matches between the teams directly involved; #Highest number of goals scored in matches between the teams directly involved; #Superior goal difference in all matches of the group; #Highest number of plus goals in all matches of the group; #Drawing of Lots This season, ten national associations were present. For the first time since the 2019–20 season, Poland had a representative, while Sweden returned after a one season absence.

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage

Playoffs

Quarterfinals

Final four

The final four was held at the MVM Dome in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary on 1 and 2 June 2024.

Bracket

Final

Top goalscorers

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:EHF Champions League

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2023 in handball 2023 in European sport 2024 in European sport