The island of Porto Santo in Madeira, Portugal, welcomes the EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup back for its fourth, consecutive year as 32 men’s and women’s teams do battle for the right to become reigning continental club champions.

The EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup is open to all European beach handball club champions and runners-up – space permitting – with the the host nation permitted one wild card team per gender.

The 11th edition of the event will take place from Thursday 16 to Sunday 19 October and features 16 teams from 12 nations (Croatia, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden) competing, 11 nations represented in the men’s competition and 10 in the women’s competition.

Each competition starts with a preliminary group stage of four teams each. After a day-and-a-half of preliminary group games, the top three in each group will go through to the main round into two groups of six each with the top four in each of those groups then progressing through to the quarter-finals and subsequent semi-finals and placement/medal matches.

Both winners of the 2024 edition will return to Porto Santo to defend their titles as women’s side ‘The Danish Beachhandball Dream’ look to make it their third, successive title, while men’s side ‘GRD Leca – Spar’ will hope to grab back-to-back titles.

A European event with an international, global flavour

Throughout the teams both on the sand and in the coaching ranks lie numerous international players and medal winners. 

The Danish Beachhandball Dream won the women’s title last year coached by national team boss Morten Holmen Frandsen with 2022 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship top-scorer and All-star Team member, Christine Mansour, from the United States of America, playing for them. 

Littered throughout the other women’s teams are national team players from Brazil, Spain, Netherlands and Hungary amongst many others.

With Croatia’s Ivan Juric, Spain’s Ignacio Palomino and a Portuguese group of players led by national team player Tiago Costa, GRD Leca – Spar utilised the best of European talent to seal the 2024 crown, but they will face a tough test from 12 Monkeys Koln, who are a strong proposition with numerous gold medallists from the German men’s side which won the The World Games title as well as the EHF Beach Handball European Championship gold earlier this year.

In addition, BHC Dubrava have added former American international Ebiye Jeremy to their ranks which also includes Hungarian and Croatian internationals. London Beach Handball feature Argentinean, Portuguese, French, Italian, Latvian and Polish players including internationals Sebastian Desbonnet and Jorge Nahuel Perez Baptista. Bruno Carlos Oliveira is one of three Brazilians named in the Nazare BHT team.

A beach handball celebration

In addition to the competition on the sand, Saturday will conclude with a friendly All-star match, with all players in Portugal looking to add their names to the voting lists for the tournament All-star Team selection announced on Sunday.

Last year, Ricardo Castro and Meike Kruijer, from Portugal and the Netherlands’ respectively won the ‘Beach Handball MVPs’ awards, which added to their bronze medals and All-star Team selections from the 2024 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships held in China.

EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup 2025 – Teams and groups

Men's competition

Group A
GRD Leça – Spar (POR)
SPR Purina Kąty Wrocławskie (POL)
Lund Beachhandball Club (SWE)
Rotterdam Handbal (NED)

Group B
Fundación Fomento Deporte CBMP Ciudad de Málaga (ESP)
Aarhus Beach (DEN)
Ligue Nouvelle Aquitaine Handball (FRA)
VRT Lemar (POR)

Group C
12 Monkeys Köln BHC (GER)
Nazaré BHT (POR)
Hiekka Hauskaa (NED)
Green Cobras BHC (HUN)

Group D
Hír-Sat BHC (HUN)
BHC Dubrava (CRO)
London Beach Handball (GBR)
Rødby Beach Boys (DEN)

Women's competition

Group A
The Danish Beach Handball Dream (DEN)
Ligue Nouvelle Aquitaine Handball (FRA)
BHT Byczki Kowalewo Pomorskie (POL)
London GD (GBR)

Group B
Caipiranhas Bartenbach (GER)
Red Velvet BHC Aqvital (HUN)
Copaca – Balerina (SUI)
MKS Ochota Warszawa (POL)

Group C
Fundación Fomento Deporte CBMP Ciudad de Málaga (ESP)
BHC Dubrava (CRO)
Olympia Beach Handball (GBR)
Fortitudo BH (POR)

Group D
Copenhagen Beach (DEN)
GRD Leça Love Tiles (POR)
Beach Unicorns Hanover (GER)
OVB Beach Girls BHC (HUN)

About the EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup

The EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup is open to all European National Federation Beach Handball club champions.

The host nation is permitted one wild card team per gender, while the reigning champions from the previous edition automatically qualify too. Second-ranked teams from each nation can also be registered as substitute teams and will be allocated a place if spots are available.

The first four editions of the event – 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 – took place on the Canary Islands, in Las Palmas, Spain, before Catania, Italy hosted the 2018 and 2019 editions.

After covid saw the 2020 edition cancelled, the event returned to Italy in 2021, on the island of Sicily on Isola delle Femmine, Italy.

32 teams from 11 nations (Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland) competed at the 2024 edition.

Credit photo: EHF / Kolektiff