How the New 24-Team EHF Champions League Men Format Works

The EHF Champions League Men expanded from 16 to 24 teams for 2026/27 and replaced its long group phase plus play-offs with a shorter group phase and a new main round.

The essential numbers are 24 teams, six groups of four, six group matches per team and 12 main-round places. Eight clubs then reach the quarter-finals. Every team at the EHF FINAL4 will have played exactly 18 Champions League matches.

This change applies to the men’s competition. The EHF said reform of its women’s club competitions would begin in 2027/28, not 2026/27, when it announced the men’s expansion.

The new competition path

Stage	Field	Matches per team	What happens next
Group phase	24 teams in six groups of four	6	First and second enter the main round; third and fourth enter the European League play-offs
Main round	12 teams in two groups of six	8	First to fourth reach the Champions League quarter-finals; fifth enters the European League Last 16; sixth is out of Europe
Quarter-finals	8 teams	2	Four two-leg winners reach the EHF FINAL4
EHF FINAL4	4 teams	2	Semi-final, then final or third-place match

The group phase is a double round robin, so each club meets its three opponents at home and away. The top two from groups A, B and C form main-round group I; the qualifiers from D, E and F form group II.

A main-round team does not play the opponent it already faced in the group phase again. It carries forward the points earned in those two group games, then meets the other four teams home and away. That produces eight new main-round fixtures rather than 10; Paris Saint-Germain’s format explanation confirms the points carry-over, while the EHF’s official format guide sets out the eight-match schedule and confirms that the quarter-finals and EHF FINAL4 remain unchanged.

What changed from the old format

Measure	Previous format	2026/27 format
Starting teams	16	24
Opening groups	Two groups of eight	Six groups of four
Opening-stage games per team	14	6
Champions League main round	None	Two groups of six
Champions League play-offs	Yes	No
Matches played by a FINAL4 team	18 or 20	18

Previously, the top two in each eight-team group advanced directly to the quarter-finals, while teams placed third to sixth needed a two-leg play-off. That produced unequal routes: a direct qualifier reaching Cologne played 18 matches, but a club arriving through the play-offs played 20.

The new system gives every FINAL4 participant the same workload: six group games, eight main-round games, two quarter-final legs and two matches in Cologne. That is 6 + 8 + 2 + 2 = 18.

The competition has more clubs but the same number of matches overall, as the EHF stated when announcing the reform. The structure shows how:

• New group phase: six groups × 12 matches = 72
• New main round: 12 teams × eight matches ÷ two teams per match = 48
• Total before the quarter-finals: 120 matches

Under the old system, the two eight-team groups generated 112 matches and the four two-leg play-offs added eight, also making 120. The reform redistributes fixtures rather than adding them.

Why every group result carries more weight

A club now has only six matches to finish in the top two, compared with 14 matches in the previous opening phase. One game therefore represents one-sixth of the schedule rather than one-fourteenth. There is less time to recover from an early losing run, and the result against the other qualifying club can follow both teams into the main round.

The group draw also protects clubs from facing another team from their own federation at this stage. The 24 entrants were divided into four pots using the EHF Club Ranking before being drawn into the six groups, according to the EHF’s draw report. For background on fixed places and upgrade applications, see how the 2026/27 Champions League field was assembled.

Dropping into the European League

Finishing outside the top two no longer ends a club’s European season immediately. All 12 teams placed third or fourth in the initial groups move into the EHF European League play-offs. Later, the two fifth-place main-round teams enter that competition at the Last 16.

This crossover matters when reading season records. Matches played after a transfer belong to the EHF European League, not the Champions League. A club’s overall European goals and games can therefore exceed its Champions League totals even though it began the season in the top competition.

2026/27 playing dates

The group phase runs from 9 September to 29 October 2026, followed by the main round from 18 November 2026 to 4 March 2027. The quarter-finals are scheduled for 24 March to 1 April 2027, with the EHF FINAL4 on 12–13 June 2027, according to the EHF schedule.

For comparisons across seasons, the main break is therefore 2026/27: raw group-stage totals are no longer directly comparable because teams play six opening-stage matches instead of 14. Per-match measures—goals per game, points per game and average goal difference—are more meaningful than unadjusted totals.