3 EHF EUROPEAN LEAGUE MEN Season 2023/24 1 Foreword EHF President Dear handball friends, The first 32-team EHF European League Men season has reached the knockout stage, after a thrilling group stage and main round, with 12 teams still in contention for the trophy. After the main round, four teams – HBC Nantes, Skjern Handbold, SG Flensburg-Handewitt and Sporting CP – have qualified directly for the quarter-finals, and will miss the play-offs. Meanwhile Górnik Zabrze, RK Gorenje Velenje, Vojvodina and CSM Constanta were eliminated in the main round. That leaves eight sides in the play-offs. They will play two matches on Tuesday 26 March and Tuesday 2 April in a head-to-head format, with the winners progressing to the quarter-finals. Romanian powerhouse Dinamo Bucuresti will face Bjerringbro-Silkeborg of Denmark, with the first leg in Bucharest and the second in Silkeborg. Dinamo finished third in group IV, after beating compatriots Constanta twice, but losing twice to Sporting CP with the Portuguese side unbeatable in the main round. Bjerringbro were second in group III in their first appearance in the European League. Kadetten Schaffhausen play 2023 champions Füchse Berlin in the play-offs, with the Swiss side having the first home right. The two met each other in last year’s quarter-finals, where Füchse cancelled out Kadetten’s first-leg 37:33 victory with a 30:24 win at home in the second leg. Another German team, Rhein-Neckar Löwen, is also still in the competition. The Lions will play 2022 finalists RK Nexe in another familiar match-up; they last met in the 2020/21 Last 16, where Löwen’s first-leg 27:25 win in Croatia was enough to take them through to the quarter-finals after a second-leg draw. The final play-off tie is between yet another German side, TSV Hannover-Burgdorf, and Sweden’s IK Sävehof. Hannover have made a good return to European competition after four seasons to reach this stage. Sävehof won the group stage, but finished second to Skjern in the main round after losses in the first two matches. The EHF European League Men has already proved to be an exciting competition this year, and the play-offs promise to be just as thrilling. Yours in sport, Michael Wiederer EHF President
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