The 11th edition of one of the top international competitions, the SEHA – Gazprom League, will throw off on 2 February, with a 10-team line-up featuring at the start and 40 games scheduled in the group phase between February and May 2022.

Eight teams will play the group phase of the competition, with two groups of four each, as two more teams are already qualified for the quarter-final phase. 

According to the decision of the SEHA Executive Committee, Telekom Veszprem HC, as title-holders, and HC Meshkov Brest, due to COVID-19 issues, are already through to the quarter-finals.

Seven different countries will be represented in the competition, with two teams each from Croatia, Serbia and North Macedonia, while Belarus, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine boast one team each.

The top two teams from each of the two groups as well as two play-off winners will join Veszprem and Meshkov Brest in the quarter-finals, with the winners of each quarter-final securing a SEHA – Gazprom FINAL 4 berth, due to be played from 2 to 4 September 2022.
 

Nine of the 10 participants from last season will be back in the competition, with the only change being the addition of Serbian team HC Partizan Belgrade, who will replace HC Metaloplastika Sabac after Partizan finished second in the Serbian league, two points ahead of Metaloplastika, in the previous season.

Only three teams have won the SEHA – Gazprom League so far, with North Macedonian powerhouse RK Vardar 1961 leading the all-time standings with five titles, followed by Telekom Veszprem HC with four titles, while HC PPD Zagreb secured only one title in the 2012/13 season.

Veszprem won the competition in the last two seasons, securing a 35:27 win in the final against Vardar in the 2019/20 season and a 31:29 win against HC PPD Zagreb last season, after penalties. Both SEHA – Gazprom FINAL4 editions were hosted in Zadar, Croatia.

Despite their roster overhaul, Vardar will be eyeing a quarter-final spot once again this season, being drawn in Group B alongside RK Nexe from Croatia, HC Vojvodina from Serbia and HC Motor Zaporozhye from Ukraine.

HC PPD Zagreb, another title candidate, are in Group A, alongside Slovakia’s Tatran Presov, North Macedonia’s HC Eurofarm Rabotnik and HC Partizan Belgrade from Serbia.

Visit the official SEHA – Gazprom League website for more information.