The new season of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League, the top European club competition, will throw off on Wednesday, 10 September, with 16 teams at the start, including all the three sides which will take part in the 2025 IHF Men’s Club World Championship in late September, Veszprém HC, SC Magdeburg and FC Barcelona.
15 of the 16 participants from the last season will return to the competition, with the only newcomer compared to the previous iteration being Danish side GOG, which replaced another Danish side, Fredericia.
Therefore, all the big guns and usual suspects will line up at the start, with the 16 teams being divided into two groups of eight teams each for the group phase. The top two teams in each group will progress to the quarter-finals, while the teams ranked three to sixth are due to feature in the play-offs.
Group A looks to be stacked with powerhouses, with the current German champions, Füchse Berlin, being the name to watch, boasting a fantastic roster, led by the 2023 and 2024 IHF Male Player of the Year, Mathias Gidsel. However, Füchse, the runners-up from the previous season, had a turbulent start of the new season, with coach Jaron Siewert being replaced by Nikolaj Krickau just one week into September.
Füchse will see some strong challenges from the current champions of the IHF Men’s Club World Championship, Veszprém HC, which will be looking to secure a place in the EHF FINAL4 next June, in Xavi Pascual’s second season as the head coach.
Last season’s third-placed side, HBC Nantes, will be looking to emulate their antics and produce another good performance, while another challenge will come as well as from Sporting CP, the Portuguese champions, which boast the “Best Young Player Presented by Lidl” from the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, right back Francisco Costa.
Perennial contenders Aalborg Håndbold and Industria Kielce, as well as Romanian champions Dinamo București and Kolstad Håndball complete the group.
Group B will have several outstanding favourites, spearheaded by the current champions in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League, SC Magdeburg.
The German powerhouse, winner of two of the last three editions in the Champions League, as well as the IHF Men’s Club World Championship winners in 2021, 2022 and 2023, still have some players out due to injury, but boast a stellar line-up, with Gísli Kristjánsson, Felix Claar or Ómar Ingi Magnússon in their back line.
Their traditional rivalry with FC Barcelona will see another two episodes in this group, as the Spanish powerhouse is currently undergoing a serious rebuild, having reeled back in line player Ludovic Fabregas. Both Magdeburg and Barcelona, as well as Veszprém, will line up at the start of the 2025 IHF Men’s Club World Championship, scheduled to start on 26 September.
With a new coach at the helm after seven years in Stefan Madsen, Paris Saint-Germain Handball will hope to return to Cologne, while Orlen Wisła Płock and GOG seem to be powerful contenders to disrupt the natural order of the group.
A new start for OTP Bank – Pick Szeged, signalled by their ambitious move of signing centre back Jim Gottfridsson, will also be on the menu, while RK Zagreb and RK Eurofarm Pelister complete the group.
The group phase of the 2025/26 season of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League starts on 10 September and will end on 12 March.
The play-offs will take place on 1 and 2 April, with the second legs scheduled one week later, on 8 and 9 April. The quarter-finals will take place on 29 and 30 April and 6 and 7 of May.
The winner will be crowned during the EHF FINAL4, which is scheduled for 13 and 14 June in the LANXESS Arena in Cologne, Germany.