On the premiere the Champions League Men’s Final 4 brought great excitement fantastic matches and gathered the best European players and clubs all in front of 3 700 spectators over two days of matches at the Saarlandhalle in Saarbrücken. Four clubs reached the Final 4: SolexConsult TTC Wiener Neustadt TTC Neu-Ulm Borussia Düsseldorf and 1. FC Saarbrücken TT e.V. Two out of three matches ended with a 3-2 result including the fantastic final between defending champions and the new champions from Saarbrücken and the seven-time winner of the Champions League Borussia Düsseldorf.
“This kind of two-day competition with semi-finals and a final is very good for the spectators as we saw already here in the first edition. Of course there is always a danger of losing a little bit of home advantage value… There were so many people in the venue and for all of us it is so much fun to play in front of so many spectators. We will be very happy if we have the Final Four again ” said Patrick FRANZISKA.
On behalf of the host 1. FC Saarbrücken TT e.V. manager Nicolas BARRIOS said: “I have to say that I am very thankful that we got this event. It was a hard process but we managed it in the end. I do not want to focus now on the sport but on the organizational results: I am happy; the way the competition turned out was my goal. As Patrick said before the crowd was not only for 1. FC Saarbrücken TT e.V. We heard yesterday that Wiener Neustadt had many fans from Austria and it was the same with Neu Ulm. In the final everyone was cheering on a good point and at the crucial moments the crowd was standing up no matter for whom that point was. That has to be the goal for us in the future: to have spectators who are not only supporters of one club.”
BARRIOS further explained: “We would organize this event even if Saarbrücken failed to qualify. As you remember we had a problem in the group stage with the French Pontoise the strongest team in our Group with Marcos Freitas and Korean player Lim Jonghoon. Our place was not guaranteed. But I think even without us with the strong French team we will have a great atmosphere here. This system worked fantastically. We exceeded our predictions. Despite Easter we had 4 700 tickets sold. Our desire was to reach at least 2 000 per day and we did better than planned. It showed that people are interested in a competition where 25 top players in Europe and the world gather together and play for their clubs.”
Timo BOLL shortly added: “It was well-organized and the atmosphere was good. Besides our defeat everything else was fine.”
