ehf_25yers_book_webversion

CLUB COMPETITIONS
“It is always
great to be back
in Cologne.
The atmosphere
is simply brilliant;
the fans go off
like fireworks in
the stands. This is
handball at
its best”
Stefan Lövgren at the VELUX EHF
FINAL4 in Cologne (2016)
former Yugoslavia were hard to define. But
a start had been made.
The first playing system survived the first
three seasons up to and including 1995-
96, in both the men’s and the women’s
competitions. Yet even at this early stage,
the huge sporting and economic potential
of the Men’s Champions League already
started to emerge. The Croatian champion
Badel Zagreb, for example, played
all group matches and even the home
match of the 1995 Champions League
final against winner Bidasoa Irun in soldout
arenas, attracting crowds of 12,000
spectators. For German champion THW
Kiel, the Champions League was likewise
good business, said jubilant manager Uwe
Schwenker. Schwenker happily raked in
some 600,000 Deutschmark in revenues
for the club, as the three home matches
against Irun, OM Vitrolles and Dukla
Prague were nearly sold out.
Due to smaller arena capacities and the
lesser appeal of women’s handball in the
relevant markets, revenues from ticket
sales did not reach similar levels in the
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