Sport Handball Matches played 156 | Website ehfcl.com Goals scored 8580 (55 per match) | |
 | ||
Dates 3 September 2016–4 June 2017 Teams 28 (group stage)
34 (Qualification) | ||
The 2016–17 EHF Champions League is the 57th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 24th edition under the current EHF Champions League format. Vive Targi Kielce are the defending champions.
Contents
Competition format
Twenty-eight teams will participate in the competition, divided in four groups. Groups A and B will be played with eight teams each, in a round robin, home and away format. The top team in each group will qualify directly for the quarter-finals, the bottom two in each group drop out of the competition and the remaining 10 teams qualify for the first knock-out phase.
In groups C and D, six teams will play in each group in a round robin format, playing both home and away. The top two teams in each group will then meet in a ‘semi-final’ play-off, with the two winners going through to the first knock-out phase. The remaining teams drop out of the competition.
12 teams will play 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 will join 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, will continue in its existing format, with the four top teams from the competition competing for the title.
Team allocation
26 teams were directly qualified for the group stage.
Round and draw dates
The qualification and group stage draw will be held in Glostrup, Denmark.
Qualification stage
The draw was held on 29 June 2016 at 13:00 in Vienna, Austria. The eight teams were split in two groups and played a semifinal and final to determine the last participants. Matches were played on 3 and 4 September 2016.
Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 1 July 2016 at 13:00 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 is 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 (Kiel) was drawn with one of the other two.
In each group, teams play against each other in a double round-robin format, with home and away matches.
After completion of the group stage matches, the teams advancing to the knockout stage will be 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 1–5 March 2017 and the second leg on 7–12 March 2017.
Knockout stage
The first-placed team from the preliminary groups A and B advance to the qurterfinals, while the 2–6th placed teams advance to the round of 16 alongside the playoff winners.