How the new format for the EHF European League Men works
The EHF European League Men heads into its 2026/27 season late September with the same number of participating clubs as in the past three years — 32. Still, the competition will look vastly different with a new playing system in place, that will see teams eliminated from the EHF Champions League Men enter the EHF European League at two stages: The play-offs and the Last 16. Here is how the new format works.
The EHF European League Men underwent its last format change three years ago, when the number of participating clubs was raised from 24 to 32. That number stays the same in 2026/27, but the playing system has been revamped.
The competition now consists of five phases: the group phase, the play-offs, the Last 16, the quarter-finals, and the EHF Finals Men.
The group phase is similar to the former 'group matches' under the previous format with eight round-robin groups of four teams each. All top-two ranked teams will advance to the play-offs; the European season for the other 16 teams ends here.
The 16 remaining teams will be joined in the play-offs by the 12 teams that finished third or fourth in the group phase of the EHF Champions League Men, which is also played under a new format next season. The 14 winners coming through the play-offs will be joined by two more teams from the EHF Champions League Men — those that finished fifth in the top flight's main round.
From here, the EHF European League Men follows a regular knockout format, with the Last 16 and the quarter-finals before the best four teams meet at the EHF Finals Men 2027 in Hamburg.
The pairings for the play-offs, Last 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals (at the EHF Finals) will all be determined by draws.
The new playing system makes sure that all four teams competing at the EHF Finals Men will have played the same amount of matches throughout the season: 14 — six in the group phase, and two each in the play-offs, Last 16, quarter-finals and EHF Finals.
In previous years, the number of matches played could differ by up to four between the teams, depending on whether they had to play a qualification round or not before the group matches and whether they had gone through the play-offs or skipped them as winners of a main round group.
EHF European League Men key format features:
- 32 teams in the group phase consisting of eight groups of four
- six matches per team: home and away against each other team in the group
- the 16 teams ranked first and second in the eight groups qualify for the play-offs; the teams ranked third and fourth are out of the competition
- 12 teams from the EHF Champions League Men enter the competition in the play-offs
- the play-offs consist of 14 pairings, decided by a draw
- in the Last 16, the 14 play-off winners are joined by two more teams coming over from the EHF Champions League; the pairings are again decided by a draw
- the eight winners in the Last 16 advance to the quarter-finals, also set up by a draw
- the quarter-finals and EHF Finals Men remain unchanged
Key playing dates 2026/27:
> group phase: 29 September 2026–2 December 2026
> play-offs: 9 February 2027–2 March 2027
> Last 16: 23 and 30 March 2027
> quarter-finals: 20 and 27 April 2027
> EHF Finals Men: 22–23 May 2027
main image © Uros Hocevar / kolektiff
