2015–16 EHF Champions League

Team allocation

Twenty-seven teams were directly qualified for the group stage.

Competition format

In March 2014, EHF introduced a new competition format.

Twenty-eight teams participated in the competition, divided in four groups. Groups A and B played with eight teams each, in a round robin, home and away format. The top team in each group qualified directly for the quarter-finals, the bottom two in each group dropped out of the competition and the remaining 10 teams qualified for the first knock-out phase.

In groups C and D, six teams played in each group in a round robin format, playing both home and away. The top two teams in each group then met in a ‘semi-final’ play-off, with the two winners going through to the first knock-out phase. The remaining teams dropped out of the competition.

12 teams played home and away in the first knock-out phase, with the 10 teams qualified from groups A and B and the two teams qualified from groups C and D.

The six winners of the matches in the first knock-out phase joined with the winners of groups A and B to play home and away for the right to play in the VELUX EHF FINAL4.

The culmination of the season, the VELUX EHF FINAL4, with the four top teams from the competition competing for the title.

Round and draw dates

All draws held at the European Handball Federation headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

Qualification stage

There was no draw held. The four teams played a semifinal and final to determine the last participant. Matches were played on 5 and 6 September 2015. RK Banja Luka organized the tournament.

Bracket

All times are local (UTC+2).

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 26 June 2015, 20:00 CEST, in the Vienna city centre. The 28 teams were drawn into four groups, two containing eight teams (Groups A and B) and two containing six teams (Groups C and D). The only restriction was that teams from the same national association could not face each other in the same group. Since Germany qualified three teams, the lowest seeded side (Flensburg-Handewitt) had necessarily to be drawn with one of the other two.

In each group, teams played against each other in a double round-robin format, with home and away matches. The matchdays are 16–20 September, 23–27 September, 30 September–4 October, 7–11 October, 14–18 October, 21–25 October, 11–15 November, 18–22 November, 25–29 November and 2–6 December 2015. For Groups A and B, additional matchdays include 10–14 February, 17–21 February, 24–28 February and 2–6 March 2016.

After completion of the group stage matches, the teams advancing to the knockout stage were determined in the following manner:

Playoffs

The top two teams from Groups C and D contest a playoff to determine the two sides advancing to the knockout phase. The winners of each group will face the runners-up of the other group in a two-legged tie. The first leg will be played on 27–28 February 2016, and the second leg will be played on 5 March 2016.

Knockout stage

The first-placed team from the preliminary groups A and B advanced to the qurterfinals, while the 2–6th placed teams advanced to the round 16 alongside the playoff winners.

Final four

The final four was held at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany on 28 and 29 May 2016. The draw was held on 3 May 2016 at 12:00.

Top goalscorers

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Awards

The all-star team was announced by EHF on 29 May 2015.