37 teams enter third season of EHF European League Women

The third season of the EHF European League Women starts with a vacant throne and with 37 teams aiming to reach the competition’s final in the middle of May 2023.

The 2021/22 champions SG BBM Bietigheim will play in the EHF Champions League in the upcoming season but there are a plethora of clubs with the highest ambitions on the starting grid of the 2022/23 edition.

Based on the seeding list released by the European Handball Federation, four highest-seeded clubs go straight to the group phase and enter the competition only on 7/8 January 2023 when the stage’s first round will be played. These four clubs include the EHF Finals Women 2021 and 2022 participants Ikast Håndbold (previously Herning-Ikast Håndbold) from Denmark, Hungary's DVSC Schaeffler from Debrecen, Paris 92 and Molde Elite from Norway.

The runners-up of the previous season, Vibork HK, have been seeded to qualification round 3 and will start their campaign on 3/4 December 2022.

They are joined by an additional 14 teams, including three last season’s EHF Champions League participants BV Borussia 09 Dortmund, Podravka Vegeta and IK Sävehof, which also start in qualification round 3.

Consequently, 18 clubs open the competition in qualification round 2 which is scheduled for 8/9 October 2022 (first leg) and 15/16 October (second leg).

There are no matches in qualification round 1, hence qualification round 2 will be the first playing round of the new season.

The draw for all matches in qualification round 2 will take place on 19 July at 11:00 CEST at the EHF in Vienna. A live stream will be available on Youtube and Facebook.

Following six rounds of group phase matches in January and February 2023, the quarter-finals take place in March. The season’s EHF Finals Women are scheduled for 13 and 14 May 2023.

Download the EHF European League Women 2022/23 seeding list.