Six pots for group phase draw revealed

Following the conclusion of the qualification last Tuesday, all is set for the next step in the EHF European League Men 2021/22.

The 24 qualified teams and their thousands of fans are now awaiting the draw on Thursday 30 September at 10:00 CEST to learn the names of their opponents in the group phase. The teams will be divided into four groups of six.

The draw event takes place at the EHF headquarters in Vienna and EHF President Michael Wiederer together with Markus Glaser, EHF Chief Sports Officer, will conduct the drawing of the lots.

Besides streaming on EHFTV, the draw will receive extensive coverage on EHF's digital channels, including the official EHF European League Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Teams from 16 nations are involved in Thursday's draw

The 24 teams have been seeded in six pots for Thursday's draw. Each team from a pot will be drawn into one of the four groups.

SC Magdeburg, who won the maiden EHF European League Men trophy last season, are lined up in pot 1 together with Bidasoa Irun from Spain, Grundfos Tatabánya from Hungary and the last season's EHF FINAL4 participants HBC Nantes from France.

While pots 2 and 3 consist of the national champions of eight countries in total, the remaining three pots belong to the teams who made it from the qualification.

In total 16 national federations have at least one club participating in the group phase. France lead the way with four teams, ahead of Germany with three, while Portugal, Switzerland and Spain all have two clubs in the mix.

As a country-protection rule applies to this draw, there will be several steps needed to prevent two teams from the same country from ending up in the same group. See the full rundown of steps below.

The group phase will commence on Tuesday 19 October with the first round. The top four teams of each group after 10 rounds will advance to the Last 16 in March.

Pots for the EHF European League Men 2021/22 group phase draw:

Pot 1
Bidasoa Irun (ESP)
HBC Nantes (FRA)
SC Magdeburg (GER)
Grundfos Tatabánya KC (HUN)

Pot 2
HC Eurofarm Pelister (MKD)
Chekhovskie Medvedi (RUS)
Pfadi Winterthur (SUI)
IK Sävehof (SWE)

Pot 3
Cocks (FIN)
AEK Athens HC (GRE)
RK Gorenje Velenje (SLO)
Tatran Presov (SVK)

Pot 4
PAUC Handball (FRA)
Füchse Berlin (GER)
TBV Lemgo Lippe (GER)
Sporting CP (POR)

Pot 5
GOG (DEN)
BM La Rioja (ESP)
USAM Nimes Gard (FRA)
Orlen Wisla Plock (POL)

Pot 6
RK Nexe (CRO)
Fenix Toulouse Handball (FRA)
SL Benfica (POR)
Kadetten Schaffhausen (SUI)

Step-by-step draw procedure:

Step 1: A team from Pot 1 will be drawn into Row 1 (4 times)

Step 2: A team from Pot 2 will be drawn into Row 2 (4 times)

Step 3: A team from Pot 3 will be drawn into Rw 3 (4 times)

Step 4: Füchse Berlin and TBV Lemgo Lippe from Pot 4 will be drawn into Row 4 while the group with SC Magdeburg will not be among their possible groups

Step 5a: If Füchse or TBV end up in a group with HBC Nantes the remaining two teams of Pot 4 will be drawn into two remaining spots in Row 4.
OR
Step 5b: If neither Füchse nor TBV end up in a group with HBC Nantes the two remaining spots in Row 4 have to be allocated - Sporting CP will take the group with Nantes and PAUC the last group.

Step 6: USAM Nimes Gard from Pot 5 will be drawn into Row 5 while the groups with Nantes and PAUC will not be among their possible groups

Step 7a: If Nimes end up in a group with Bidasoa, the remaining three teams of Pot 5 will be drawn into three remaining spots in Row 5.
OR
Step 7b: If Nimes don't end up in a group with Bidasoa, there will only be two possible groups for La Rioja (neither the one taken by Nimes, nor the one with Bidasoa). The two remaining teams from Pot 5, GOG and Plock will be drawn into the last two open positions in Row 5.

Step 8: Fenix Toulouse from Pot 6 will be allocated to the only group with no French team in Row 6.

Step 9a: If Toulouse take the group with Pfadi Winterthur, then Kadetten Schaffhausen will be drawn into one of the three remaining spots in Row 6.
OR
Step 9b: If Toulouse don't take the group with Pfadi, then Kadetten Schaffhausen will have to avoid the group with Pfadi and will be drawn into one of only two available groups in Row 6.

Step 10a: If either Toulouse or Kadetten take the group with Sporting, then the two remaining teams from Pot 6, Benfica and Nexe will be drawn into the last two open positions in Row 6.
OR
Step 10b: If neither Toulouse nor Kadetten take the group with Sporting, then the two remaining teams from Pot 6, the two remaining spots in Row 6 have to be allocated - Nexe will take the group with Sporting and Benfica the last group.