Pots revealed for EHF Champions League Women group phase draw

European Handball Federation

25 June 2024, 17:00

The four participants of the EHF FINAL4 Women 2024, Györi Audi ETO KC, Metz Handball, HB Ludwigsburg and Team Esbjerg have been split across three of the four pots ahead of the draw for the EHF Champions League Women 2024/25, in which all 16 participants discover their next season's group phase fate on Thursday 27 June.

The teams will enter Thursday's draw in Vienna in four pots. In order to avoid many allocations due to country protection, the EHF has adjusted the draw procedure from last year, with four teams each in Pots 1 and 2, six in Pot three and only two in Pot 4.

Champions Györi Audi ETO KC will be drawn from Pot 3, Metz Handball and Team Esbjerg from Pot 1 and HB Ludwigsburg (formerly SG BBM Bietigheim) from Pot 2, leaving open the possibility of three of them being drawn together in the same group.

Country protection will still be applied to ensure the two teams from Hungary, France and Norway will not meet their national league opponents in the group phase. However, as Denmark and Romania have three teams each, the teams drawn from Pot 4 will inevitably face one of their domestic league rivals, but not both.

The group phase will be played in a round-robin format. After 14 rounds, the top two teams in each group will qualify directly for the quarter-finals, while the teams that finish in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth places will contest the play-offs. The lowest-ranked two clubs in each group will be eliminated from the competition at the end of the group phase.

The first round is scheduled for 7-8 September 2024, with the final round of group matches taking place on 22-23 February 2025.

Draw procedure

Step 1: 4 teams from Pot 1 drawn to four places - A1, B1, A2, B2

Step 2: 4 teams from Pot 2 drawn to these four places - A3, B3, A4, B4

Step 3: 6 teams from Pot 3 allocated to six places - A5, B5, A6, B6, A7, B7

Step 4: 2 teams from Pot 4 drawn to two remaining positions - A8, B8

Watch the draw

The group phase draws for both the EHF Champions League Women and the Machineseeker EHF Champions League, taking place on Thursday, 27 June at 17:30 CEST, will be streamed on EHFTV and the Home of Handball YouTube channel.

EHF Champions League Women 2024/25 group phase

POT 1

HUN - FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria

NOR - Vipers Kristiansand

DEN - Team Esbjerg

FRA - Metz Handball

POT 2

ROU - CSM București

GER - HB Ludwigsburg

SLO - Krim Mercator Ljubljana

MNE - Buducnost BEMAX

POT 3