2025–26 EHF Champions League

EHF Champions League

2025–26
Tournament information
Sport	Handball
Dates	10 September 2025–14 June 2026
Teams	16
Website	ehfcl.com
Tournament statistics
Matches played	88
Goals scored	5462 (62.07 per match)
Attendance	393,440 (4,471 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mathias Gidsel (83 goals)

The 2025–26 EHF Champions League is the 66th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament, running from 10 September 2025 to 14 June 2026.

SC Magdeburg are the defending champions.

The tournament will run using the same format as the previous three seasons. The competition begins with a group stage featuring sixteen teams divided into two groups. Matches are played in a double round-robin system with home-and-away fixtures, fourteen in total for each team. In Groups A and B, the top two teams automatically qualify for the quarter-finals, with teams ranked third to sixth entering the playoff round.

The knockout stage includes four rounds: the playoffs, quarter-finals, and a final-four tournament comprising two semifinals and the final. In the playoffs, eight teams are paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches (third-placed in group A plays sixth-placed group B; fourth-placed group A plays fifth-placed group B, etc.). The four aggregate winners of the playoffs advance to the quarterfinals, joining the top-two teams of Groups A and B. The eight quarterfinalist teams are paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches, with the four aggregate winners qualifying to the final-four tournament.

In the final four tournament, the semifinals and the final are played as single matches at a pre-selected host venue.

Ten of the sixteen teams competing in the group stage will be determined through the EHF association ranking for the 2024–25 season, based on the results of the three previous seasons.^[1] The remaining six places will be awarded as wildcards.

• Associations ranked 1–9 have their league champion qualify for the group stage and can apply their league runner-up for a wildcard.
• The best-ranked association in the EHF European League can have its league champion and runner-up qualify for the group stage, but cannot apply for a wildcard.
• Associations ranked outside the top nine can only have their league champion apply for a wildcard.

Rank[2] Association Average points Teams 1 Spain 215.00 1 2 Germany 182.33 2 3 Poland 166.33 4 Denmark 139.33 5 Hungary 127.00 6 France 127.00 7 Romania 56.50 1 8 Croatia 49.00

Rank Association Average points Teams 9 Portugal 47.00 1 10 Norway 46.33 11 North Macedonia 34.67 12 Ukraine 34.00 0 13 Belarus[1] 30.00 14 Slovenia 29.00 15 All other associations 0.00

The first ten teams were revealed on 18 June 2025.^[3] The full list was announced on 24 June 2025.^[4]

RK Zagreb (1st)	Aalborg Håndbold (1st)	Barcelona (1st)	Paris Saint-Germain (1st)
Füchse Berlin (1st)	SC Magdeburg (2nd)	One Veszprém (1st)	Orlen Wisła Płock (1st)
Sporting CP (1st)	CS Dinamo București (1st)	GOG Håndbold (2nd) WC	HBC Nantes (2nd) WC
SC Pick Szeged (2nd) WC	RK Eurofarm Pelister (1st) WC	Kolstad Håndball (2nd) WC	Industria Kielce (2nd) WC

• ^WC Accepted wildcards

Rejected wildcards

FC Porto (2nd)

RD LL Grosist Slovan (1st)

Kadetten Schaffhausen (1st)

Zagreb

Aalborg

GOG

PSG

Nantes

Füchse

Magdeburg

Szeged

Veszprém

Kolstad

Sporting

Kielce

Płock

Pelister

Dinamo

Barcelona

Location of teams of the 2025–26 EHF Champions League group stage.
Red: Group A; Blue: Group B.

The 16 teams were drawn into two groups of eight. Teams from the same national association could not be drawn into the same group. The draw took place on 27 June 2025.^[4][5]

In the group stage, teams were ranked according to points (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). After completion of the group stage, if two or more teams have scored the same number of points, the ranking will be determined as follows:

1. Highest number of points in matches between the teams directly involved;
2. Superior goal difference in matches between the teams directly involved;
3. Highest number of goals scored in matches between the teams directly involved;
4. Superior goal difference in all matches of the group;
5. Highest number of plus goals in all matches of the group;
6. Drawing of Lots

A total of 11 national associations were represented in the group stage. GOG Håndbold came back after a year absence.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BER	AAL	VES	KIE	NAN	SPO	KOL	BUC
1	Füchse Berlin (Q)	11	10	0	1	370	332	+38	20	Quarterfinals		—	31–28	38–34	26 Feb	12 Mar	33–29	38–27	32–31
2	Aalborg Håndbold (Q)	11	9	1	1	355	304	+51	19			4 Mar	—	32–28	34–27	31–24	35–30	36–24	34–28
3	Telekom Veszprém (T)	11	6	0	5	372	350	+22	12	Playoffs		31–32	12 Mar	—	35–33	30–25	32–31	42–34	25 Feb
4	Industria Kielce (T)	11	5	1	5	357	361	−4	11			32–37	32–32	36–35	—	27–35	4 Mar	38–27	34–32
5	HBC Nantes	11	5	0	6	353	325	+28	10			34–40	27–28	5 Mar	29–33	—	38–27	39–24	35–28
6	Sporting CP	11	5	0	6	367	375	−8	10			37–38	26 Feb	33–32	41–37	28–39	—	44–31	12 Mar
7	Kolstad Håndball	11	2	0	9	311	401	−90	4			28–24	26–35	29–43	12 Mar	25 Feb	30–34	—	31–28
8	CS Dinamo București (E)	11	1	0	10	305	342	−37	2			21–27	27–30	27–30	24–28	29–28	30–33	5 Mar	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MAG	BAR	PLO	SZE	PAR	GOG	PEL	ZAG
1	SC Magdeburg (Q)	11	11	0	0	373	309	+64	22	Quarterfinals		—	5 Mar	27–26	40–32	37–31	37–30	36–26	27–22
2	Barça (T)	11	10	0	1	363	300	+63	20			21–22	—	30–24	31–28	38–33	37–32	11 Mar	26 Feb
3	Orlen Wisła Płock (T)	11	7	0	4	331	325	+6	14	Playoffs		26 Feb	24–34	—	11 Mar	35–32	34–35	36–25	30–27
4	SC Pick Szeged	11	5	0	6	336	328	+8	10			30–34	27–35	33–34	—	31–29	5 Mar	35–20	32–26
5	Paris Saint-Germain	11	4	0	7	349	348	+1	8			11 Mar	27–30	29–30	26 Feb	—	34–36	33–27	35–32
6	GOG Håndbold	11	4	0	7	345	378	−33	8			30–39	28–41	28–30	31–36	28–31	—	25 Feb	11 Mar
7	RK Eurofarm Pelister	11	2	0	9	280	338	−58	4			26–31	30–34	25–28	25–24	4 Mar	28–31	—	25–23
8	RK Zagreb	11	1	0	10	295	346	−51	2			35–43	25–32	4 Mar	23–28	24–35	31–36	27–23	—

The final four will be held at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany on 13 and 14 June 2026.

As of 18 February 2026^[6]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Elohim Prandi	Paris Saint-Germain	87
2	Mathias Gidsel	Füchse Berlin	83
3	Frederik Bjerre	GOG Håndbold	78
4	Aleix Gómez	Barcelona	70
	Ómar Ingi Magnússon	SC Magdeburg
	Francisco Costa	Sporting CP
7	Melvyn Richardson	Orlen Wisła Płock	67
8	Yahia Omar	Paris Saint-Germain	64
9	Nedim Remili	One Veszprém	62
10	Orri Freyr Þorkelsson	Sporting CP	60

• 2025–26 EHF European League
• 2025–26 EHF European Cup
• 2025–26 Women's EHF Champions League
• 2025–26 Women's EHF European League
• 2025–26 Women's EHF European Cup

• Official website