Media Guide Women’s EHF Champions League Season 2015/16 Main Round Table of contents Foreword 5 Map of participating clubs 6 Women’s EHF Champions League Information 7 Media contacts - EHF/M, clubs contacts 8 2014/15 Seeding list 9 2014/15 Playing system diagram - stages and dates 10 Playing format 11 Important regulations - ranking of teams 12 Women’s EHF FINAL4 stays in Budapest until 2016 13 Extended women’s coverage on ehfTV 15 Facts & Figures 16 GROUP 1 Preview 18 Head-to-head stats 19 Rostov-Don 20 FTC Rail Cargo Hungaria 24 Larvik 28 Fleury Loiret Handball 32 Thüringer HC 36 HCM Baia Mare 40 2 Table of contents GROUP 2 Preview 44 Head-to-head stats 45 Buducnost 46 CSM Bucuresti 50 Györi Audi ETO KC 54 HC Vardar 58 FC Midtjylland 62 Sävehof IK 66 Group Matches Top scorers 70 Past winners 71 3 Thinkonepassion can reach countries.many The UNIQA Group is one of the leading insurance groups in its core markets of Austria and Central and Eastern Europe with over 40 companies in 19 countries and more than 9.3 million customers. www.uniqagroup.com 140917_UNQ_Handball_A4.indd 1 9/18/14 14:29 PM Foreword Dear media representative, Welcome to the 2015/16 Women’s EHF Champions League Main Round. Less than three weeks after Norway‘s triumph at 2015’s pinnacle national team event, the World Championship, Europe’s elite women’s handball club competition returns to the spotlight as the Women’s EHF Champions League Main Round starts. From 6 January to 28 February, the six rounds of the main round will determine the eight teams to make it to the quarter-finals. I take this opportunity to welcome twelve sides from ten countries to the third phase of the competition. Before we start analysing the two main round groups and their participants we should have a look back to the tournament in Denmark last month, which underlined the prominent position of the EHF Champions League in women‘s handball. Not only because no fewer than 93 players from the European top flight took part in the event and because all twelve main round teams had at least one player who took the floor in Denmark. Almost 30 players return to the Champions League race decorated with a medal – eight Norwegian reigning champions, four Dutch runners-up and 15 Romanian bronze medallists. And it goes without saying that Champions League players created a backbone of almost all European teams and former champions from Brazil. We will all be eager to find out how the recently awarded medallists can transfer their success from national team competition to their clubs. Their morale boost can prove to be a decisive factor for their sides in what will become probably as close and thrilling a main round stage of the Women‘s EHF Champions League as ever. While all twelve participants have still a fair chance to reach the quarter-finals, there are still eight to ten teams who have all what it takes to reach the season‘ culmination in Budapest – the Women’s EHF FINAL4. In Group 1 the new Russian powerhouse Rostov-Don has yet to drop a point in their maiden Champions League campaign, while defending champions Buducnost dominate Group 2 in a similar fashion having lost just one point. However, none of the group leaders can take the ticket to Budapest for granted as packs of formidable contenders also eye a May trip to the Hungarian capital. Will Györ be able to show more consistency against fellow heavyweights? Will Baia Mare repeat last year‘s amazing surge of reaching the quarter-finals despite starting with zero points? And will two other ambitious newcomers CSM Bucuresti and Fleury Loiret Handball just make up the numbers in the main round or can they make it to the next round? All these questions and many more will be answered in the next two months. To the teams, I wish you all the very best of luck! To the fans, I welcome you to the main round, I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the exciting show. We pride ourselves on our positive and cooperative relationship with the press and media and I am sure this will continue and develop in the future. Should you require any information, help or assistance during the course of the season, your first point of contact is the EHF Media and Communications Department based in our office in Vienna. They will be more than happy to assist you with any questions you might have. Jean Brihault EHF President 5 Györi Audi WOMEN‘S EHF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IK Sävehof, ETO KC, HUN SWE Season 2015/16 Glassverket, Teams eliminated in qualification NOR Teams eliminated in Group Matches Larvik HK, NOR Main Round teams BNTU BelAZ Minsk Reg., BLR Team Esbjerg, DEN FC Midtjylland, MKS Selgros DEN Lublin, POL SERCODAK Dalfsen, NED 6 Thüringer HC, Rostov-Don, GER RUS Fleury Loiret HCM Baia Mare, Handball, FRA ROU WOMEN‘S EHF FINAL4 Host City Budapest, HUN Hypo Niederösterreich, AUT CSM Bucharest, ROU RK Krim Mercator, SLO Ankara Yenimahalle BSK, TUR HC Podravka Vegeta, CRO FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria, HUN Buducnost, HC Vardar, WHC Radnicki MNE MKD Kragujevac, SRB EHF Champions League information New ways to follow the Women’s EHF Champions League Team line-ups and match reports can be viewed by clicking on a particular match on the eurohandball.com or ehfCL.com websites. The live stream on ehfTV.com is not the only way fans can follow the The online system is also under further development with the action. ultimate aim being to provide live scores and statistics from EHF competitions and to be available on the EHF website. The EHF Live Ticker tracks the scores of all matches. Every goal, missed shot and yellow card will be documented and live statistics Accreditation for Main Round made available online for the first time at this stage of Europe’s elite club competition. The written media and photographer’s accreditation procedure in the Main Round is entirely in the responsibility of the participating clubs. EHF Live launched TV and Radio accreditations are subjects to approval by EHF The EHF’s social media channels provide a very different view of both Marketing GmbH – please contact Miguel Mateo Marcellán. men’s and women’s premier continental competition. Online information As well as the coverage on the EHF Champions League Facebook page and Instagram reserved typically for the final weekends of major ehfCL.com competitions, on two new channels. ehfTV.com Regulations of the Women’s EHF Champions League This season fans can follow the @EHF_Live Twitter account to keep up Twitter:@ehfmedia , @ehfcl to date with all aspects of the event and add EHF_Live on Snapchat Facebook: ehf.champions.league for a behind the scenes look. Online match reports Official name From the opening matches of the season, the complete team line-up The official name of the competition is: Women’s EHF Champions is available online at eurohandball.com and available to download League. The full name of the competition should always be used. as a PDF document. The change has been made possible thanks to the introduction of a new online solution, which sees the EHF match Please note: If the season is required, it has to be positioned after delegate complete the final team line-up immediately after the “Champions League” e.g. Women’s EHF Champions League 2013/14. technical meeting. This development means that team line-ups are The wording “Champions League” should be written with a capital available for commentators and reporters hours before each match letter at the beginning of each word, i.e. Champions League. The throws-off. remaining letters should be in lower case. The word Champions does not have an apostrophe after the ‘s’. A further change means that a short time after each match, a completed match report is also available online with details such as goal scorers and number of spectators. 7 EHF/M Media contacts Media matters TV and Radio Vlado Brindzak Miguel Mateo Marcellan Media and Communications Media Manager European Handball Federation EHF Marketing GmbH +43 1 80 151 161 +43 1 80 151 224 [email protected] [email protected] Main Round Clubs – Media contacts GROUP 1 GROUP 2 Larvik HK FTC Rail Cargo Hungaria FC Midtjylland Buducnost Per Christian Andersen Andrea Pordán Troels Banggaard Milos Pavicevic +47 479 38800 +36 20 365 8263 +4521249289 +382 682 226 66 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Rostov-Don Thüringer HC HC Vardar CSM Bucuresti Maksim Shchennikov Bernd Hohnstein Ivana Stojanovska Constantin Caliman +7 918 5207625 +49 179 4649 389 +389 71 247 218 +40 721 800304 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] HCM Baia Mare Fleury Loiret Handball Györi Audi ETO KC IK Sävehof Ramona Ioana Pop Antony Tahar Andrea Szilagyi Rüdiger Osterloh +40744839987 +33 02 38866267 +36 70 394 95 96 +46 736 84 57 55 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 8 WOMEN'S EHF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2015/16 Qualification Tournaments Group Matches Main Round Quarterfinals FINAL4 Tournaments 4 groups with 4 teams 12 teams 8 teams 4 teams 16.-18.10.2015 (1) 08.-10.01.2016 (1) 12./13.09.2015 23.-25.10.2015 (2) 15.-17.01.2016 (2) 01.-03.04.2016 07./08.05.2016 tournaments 30.10.-01.11.2015 (3) 05.-07.02.2016 (3) first leg tournament played in semi finals 06.-08.11.2015 (4) 12.-14.02.2016 (4) and finals 13.-15.11.2015 (5) 19.-21.02.2016 (5) 08.-10.04.2016 NATION in one venue 20.-22.11.2015 (6) 26.-28.02.2016 (6) second leg in Budapest DRAWS: 26 June 2015 in Vienna/AUT 26 June 2015 in Vienna/AUT no draw no draw