Draw determines first matches of new EHF European League Women

The inaugural 2020/21 season of the EHF European League Women comes a step closer on Tuesday (28 July) when the opening qualification round will be drawn in Vienna.

A total of 34 clubs is on the starting grid for Europe’s newly created second-tier club competition, and 12 of them will be included in this competition’s first draw of the season.

The draw will take place on Tuesday at 11:00 CEST and will be streamed live on EHFTV as well as the EHF European League Facebook page and YouTube channel.

12 teams start in opening qualification round

While the number of participants allowed the initially scheduled qualification round 1 to be skipped, there are 12 teams starting in the opening qualification round 2.

Those 12 teams, including the likes of four-time EHF Champions League winners Hypo Niederösterreich, Thüringer HC and Kuban, have been divided into two pots of six. Which teams are seeded in which pot can be found here.

As the country-protection rule applies, no teams from the same nation can meet at this stage.

The draw procedure is as follows:

Step 1: drawing an opponent for Tertnes Bergen from Pot 2 in order to avoid fellow Norwegian team Molde HK Elite
Step 2: a team from Pot 1 is drawn against a team from Pot 2 (5x)

The first leg of the six ties in qualification round 2 is scheduled for 10/11 October, followed by the second leg one week later.

The six winners will advance to qualification round 3 in November, when 18 other teams are set to enter the competition.

Group phase set to start in January

Ultimately, 12 teams will qualify for the group phase starting in January 2021, joining the four teams – Denmark’s Herning-Ikast Handbold, Russia’s Handball Club Lada, Romania’s CS Minaur Baia Mare and Hungary’s Siófok KC – which have been directly seeded through to the group phase.

A complete overview of the seeding for the whole inaugural season of the EHF European League Women can be found here.