The new season of the EHF Champions League Women, the premium European club competition, will throw off on Saturday, 7 September, with 16 teams at the start, divided into two eight-teams groups, with the top two sides in each group progressing directly to the quarter-finals, while the sides ranked third to six progress to the play-offs.

This time around, there are three teams from Romania and Denmark each, two from Hungary, France, Norway and one from Slovenia, Croatia, Germany and Montenegro. 

Only one team will make its debut in the competition this season – Romanian side Gloria Bistrița, which finished second in the EHF European League Women last season – with Danish side Nykøbing Falster Håndboldklub also making their return after a seven-year hiatus, this being their second appearance in the EHF Champions League Women.

Three of the sides which made the EHF FINAL4 last season - winners Győri Audi ETO KC, runners-up HB Ludwigsburg and bronze medallists Team Esbjerg – will all feature in Group B, with the semi-final between Győr and Esbjerg being replayed in the first round of the new season.

Reigning champions Győr have had a busy summer on the transfer market, losing 10 players, including the MVP of the EHF FINAL4 and the All-Star centre back at the Paris 2024, Stine Bredal Oftedal, who retired from handball after winning the gold medal at the Olympics, but still have a strong side at their disposal, with coach Per Johansson leading the side after taking over this spring.

Three-time champions Vipers Kristiansand, which have secured the title in 2021, 2022 and 2023, are trying to return to the EHF FINAL4, after missing out last season after being eliminated in the quarter-finals, but the Norwegian side will be missing right back Anna Vyakhireva, the top goal scorer of the previous season, who moved to Brest Bretagne Handball. The MVP of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Katrine Lunde, will aim to win her eighth trophy in the European premium competition, with Vipers.

After seven years in charge, coach Jesper Jensen left Team Esbjerg to focus on the Denmark women’s national team, being replaced by Sweden’s coach, Tomas Axner, as the Danish champions aim to deliver their first title in the European premium competition, after the previous three seasons ended with only an EHF FINAL4 berth.

One of Esbjerg’s players, right back Nora Mork, needs only 102 goals to become the fifth player in the history of the competition to reach the 1000-goal milestone, after Anita Gorbicz, Jovanka Radicevic, Cristina Neagu and Andrea Lekic.

Radicevic will be in her final season for RK Krim Mercator, facing both Lekic and Neagu, as FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria and CSM București are in the same group.

EHF Champions League Women – group phase

GROUP A: FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria (HUN), Metz Handball (FRA), CSM București (ROU), RK Krim Mercator (SLO), Storhamar Elite Handball (NOR), Nykøbing Falster Håndboldklub (DEN), HC Podravka Vegeta (CRO), CS Gloria Bistrița (ROU)

GROUP B: Vipers Kristiansand (NOR), Team Esbjerg (DEN), Buducnost (MNE), HB Ludwigsburg (GER), Győri Audi ETO KC (HUN), Brest Bretagne Handball (FRA), CS Rapid București (ROU), Odense Håndbold (DEN)
 

Photo: EHF / kolektiff