Champions League Men | 30 Oct 2020

European Champions Leagues hosts confirmed

Germany's Düsseldorf and Austria's Linz will host TTCLM and ECLW in a secured bubble format in December

European Champions League Men and Women will be played this December. The hosts have been confirmed yesterday during a Video Conference with the presence of the club managers. The Champions League Women will be played from 2nd to 8th of December in Austria's Linz, whilst TTCLM is scheduled for 11th to 18th December and it will be played in Germany's city of Düsseldorf. Both dates are fixed with the flexibility of 1 or 2 days difference depending on media interest.

"It is a very difficult time and I am thankful that Düsseldorf and Linz accepted the challenge to host the events. Despite the numerous obstacles, I strongly believe we will manage to organise the Champions Leagues this year," said ETTU President Igor LEVITIN in his opening speech.

For the Bubble format event the playing system was changed into the playing format with 4 groups of 4 teams each in first phase. The quarter finals are reincluded into the Champions League men (same as for the women competition), the group winners and group runners-up will qualify for the knock out stage.

The group phase will be played during the first 3 days of the competition on 2 tables where each team competes once against all other teams of their group. Each team will have one match per day. The group winners and runners-up proceed to the knock out stage (quarter-finals). KO stage will be played on one table. The draw for the KO stage will be made after completion of the group stage.

ETTU together with the hosts are setting up a secured environment for all persons taking part in the Champions League (players, coaches, umpires, staff etc.). The strict measures are already defined but more specific details will be clarified in coming days concerning future European countries Government's decisions for safety.

After the Champions' League group stage, the 4th ranked teams will relegated to Europe Cup R2 and the 3rd ranked teams will relegated to Europe Cup quarter finals.

The majority of the club managers pre confirmed during the conference acceptance of the new conditions (new playing system, bubble conditions). The main concern remained with the Covid situation in Europe which will be analysed and monitored regularly.