ehf_25yers_book_webversion

“The new look
Champions
League, with its
fresh and unified
approach is
a huge step
for European
handball”
EHF President Tor Lian
comments the new brand (2006)
tremendously from country to country, it
is extremely difficult to find a competition
system that suits the needs and capacity of
everybody. Despite the fact that a lot of improvements
have been made in this area, a
lot work still remains to be done.”
The reform was finally implemented
after a Champions League Convention
in February 2003. Based on this convention,
the EHF Executive resolved in March
2003 that, from the 2003-04 season
onwards, only national champions would
be eligible to play in the Men’s Champions
League. As this rule guaranteed or in
any case greatly facilitated access to the
EHF Champions League for high-calibre
brands such as FC Barcelona or THW Kiel,
all stakeholders gained more planning security.
Henceforth, the federations of major national
leagues such as Bundesliga or Asobal,
which held top places in the EHF ranking,
were allowed to enter a maximum of
three or two clubs in the EHF Champions
League. At the same time, the number of
contenders in the group phase was raised
to 32, who played in eight groups of four
to determine the teams playing in the last
sixteen. The group phase alone thus saw
96 matches and, due to the newly introduced
last sixteen round, the number of
knock-out matches increased to 30.
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