Göppingen to host the EHF Cup Final4 2017

Photo: ews-arena.de

Written by: Rasmus Boysen

The fifth edition of the EHF Cup Finals in 2017 will be hosted by Frisch Auf Göppingen.

Press release from EHF:

The fifth edition of the EHF Cup Finals in 2017 will be hosted by Frisch Auf Göppingen after the EHF Executive Committee decided to award the hosting rights to the defending champions of the Men’s EHF Cup.

The final tournament will take place on 20 and 21 May 2017 as four best teams of the competition will descend on the EWS Arena in Göppingen with a capacity of 5,600.

The first edition of the tournament took place in Nantes, France, which also hosted the last tournament in 2016, when Frisch Auf defeated the home team HBC Nantes in the final.

In 2014 and 2015 Füchse Berlin staged the final tournament in the Max-Schmeling Halle in Berlin and also bid to play host in 2017.

Impact on quarter-finals

As the new hosts are playing in this season’s group phase it will also have an impact on the playing system in the quarter-finals.

If Göppingen win their Group B or finish among the best three second ranked teams after the group phase, they will be directly qualified for the final tournament and only three quarter-finals will be played.

If the reigning holders finish as the worst second ranked team, they will have to play the quarter-finals and there will be four quarter-final pairings.

If Göppingen finish on the third or fourth position in their Group B, they will be eliminated from the competition. They will still stage the EHF Cup Finals for the four quarter-finals winners.