Champions League in the future

Champions League in the future

Ahead of the draw for the Last 16 of this season’s VELUX EHF Champions League on Tuesday 26 February, representatives of Europe’s top clubs, the EHF, EHF Marketing GmbH and Forum Club Handball met in Vienna to look at ideas for the future development of the men’s competition.

The last major adaptions to the VELUX EHF Champions League came in the 2009/10 season, with the introduction of an additional knock-out phase - the Last 16 - and a new final weekend, the VELUX EHF FINAL4. These changes have succeeded in making Europe’s top club handball competition more competitive and the VELUX EHF Champions League more attractive to teams, fans, television and sponsors.

The workshop brought together the representatives of the Last 16 teams and EHF experts to look at how new ideas and possible adaptions to the structure and format of the VELUX EHF Champions League can ensure that the competition remains the premier indoor club competition on the international sports market.

Discussions, led by EHF Marketing GmbH representatives, saw the presentation of a number of ideas and possible models for discussion and feedback from the club representatives present.

EHF President, Jean Brihault, who opened the workshop, commented: “The EHF is constantly reviewing its competitions to ensure that they continue to deliver and be attractive both on and off court for fans, television and our partners.”

“The clubs, as our partner for daily business, are of course key to this process and we are very pleased with the response that we received to the workshop. The VELUX EHF Champions League is the EHF’s flagship club competition and it is important that we ensure it adapts to a constantly changing sports market.”

In the next step the ideas developed in the workshop will be analysed in more depth, particularly in relation to television and marketing matters.