17:43
The 2024 edition in Hamburg is the fourth EHF Finals Men, after the revamp of the European club competitions in the 2020/21 season. For the first time the EHF Finals are held at a neutral venue – or better: for the first time on purpose. Of course, Flensburg last year turned out to be a neutral venue after SG failed to qualify for the event they were hosting.
Here is an interesting ranking after the first three EHF Finals. Nine different clubs have competed at those events; Füchse, Magdeburg, and Plock are the only teams who have done so twice, with Füchse now even entering for the third time.
Füchse lead the standings, but the only team that competed at the EHF Finals and has not lost a match... is Benfica, who set Lisbon on fire by lifting the trophy in front of their home crowd two years ago.
By the way, this and much, much more info and stats on the EHF Finals and the four teams competing is available in the official media guide (PDF).
17:07
A bus with "FL - SG 1" on its license plate... that can only mean that SG Flensburg-Handewitt are arriving in Hamburg. Ten years after that stunning EHF Champions League triumph, they hope to add another European trophy to their cabinet. Remember, Flensburg are the only club that has won four different EHF trophies: EHF Cup in 1997; City Cup in 1999; Cup Winners’ Cup in 2001 and 2012; EHF Champions League in 2014. And EHF European League 2024?!
Their slogan "Ohne Grenzen" suggests there are no limits... Or do they just mean they did not have to cross a border in order to get to Hamburg – unlike their semi-final opponents Dinamo, who have travelled all the way from Bucharest already on Thursday evening.
16:27
Our social media team just posted this visual on the official EHF European League X account. Incredible to see how dominant German clubs have been in Europe's second-tier club competition. In the last 20 years, we had only two (= 2!) winners from another country: in 2014, when Pick Szeged lifted the EHF Cup; and in 2022, when SL Benfica won their home EHF Finals.
In Hamburg, we have not a hosting club taking part, but Flensburg, Löwen, and Füchse might feel they have home matches, playing in Germany. Can Dinamo, the brave challengers from Romania, stand the heat?
15:54
Apart from those media calls this afternoon, we have been talking to all four clubs at the EHF Finals Men lately to see how they get ready for and what they expect from the season-ending tournament in Hamburg. Here is the collection of features, written by EHF journalists Ida Hummeluhr, Björn Pazen, and Béla Müller: