“THE EHF FINAL4 IS GETTING MORE AND MORE INTERNATIONAL”

The 2023/24 season of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League came to an end on Sunday, with Barça crowned champions for the 12th time after winning the final against Aalborg Håndbold. All matches of the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 were sold out with 19,750 fans and important contracts were signed: the prolongation with Cologne as host until 2029 and the extension of the contract with title partner Machineseeker as well as official partner Modular System will stay with the competition.

In this interview, EHF President Michael Wiederer and David Szlezak, Managing Director of EHF Marketing, draw their event conclusions, recap the club handball season 2023/24, and look ahead to what comes next and what they expect for the future.

What were your personal highlights in Cologne this year?

David Szlezak: The start on Friday with the opening party was already outstanding, a peaceful fan festival. The players enjoyed it too, the fans are always in a good mood. What is now even more successful than before the pandemic is the activation of sponsors and partners around LANXESS arena, as shown, for example, by the ‘Dare to-Rise’ crane by Machineseeker. And then of course the performance by Anastacia, whose song "Best days" absolutely fits with the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne. We were sold out with 19,750 fans, and sold over 10,000 tickets in just a few hours in the presale for 2025. With five more years at least in Cologne, we now have the opportunity to tackle the topic of capacity again. I assume that we will be able to offer more tickets for 2025.

You mentioned the new contract with Cologne until 2029.

Were there alternative locations for the EHF FINAL4? David Szlezak: We have explored the market across Europe, but we remain true to the motto 'never change a winning team', which is why we have extended the contract with Cologne and will complete 20 editions in 2029. Therefore, another location is not an option in the current planning.

How important is the German market in this context for your events in Hamburg (EHF Finals Men) and Cologne? David Szlezak: The German market is of course very important to us. The German fans have a high level of understanding of our sport and they are handball fans, not just club fans. Of course, economic affluence also plays an important role, because this allows us to organise the events with a higher likelihood of return of investment.

What is your opinion on the criticism that there are too many EHF events in Germany?

Michael Wiederer: We have had two European Championships in Germany in 30 years: the women in 1994 and the men in 2024, that's not a lot. As far as the club competitions are concerned, all international clubs are in favour of Cologne as the venue for the EHF FINAL4 and Hamburg as the new venue for the EHF Finals Men. Because everyone knows that these are not German events, but international ones. More than 50 percent of all visitors in Cologne do not come from Germany, the event is absolutely established internationally. And all clubs back the decision to host the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne until 2029.

Is that also because every team can win in Cologne, no matter where they come from? Michael Wiederer: From a sporting perspective, Cologne is always good for surprises, whether it's in terms of the winners, but also as individual matches such as the semi-final between Barcelona and Flensburg (in 2014) or the legendary final between Kielce and Veszprém have proven. Anything is possible here, as this year once again impressively showed, there is no home advantage. And LANXESS arena has been sold out even if no German team qualified. The fact that Cologne is paying off is underlined by the fact David mentioned, that on Saturday we sold 4,000 tickets for 2025 within three hours. If we would not block the tickets for the participants, the LANXESS arena would be sold out very early on – far before we know which teams will qualify. All of this speaks for Cologne as the location.

ma realno vi ste jedna ogrmna lakardij i to je to. sami priznate da vise od 50 procent koj kupuje karta se rukomet fanova neutralci shirum evropa. tako da oni bi kupio karti i da se igra u paris, copenhagen, stockholm, itd.

f4 treba se promovirati shirum evropa. jedini razlog sta se igra u cologne je da kapacitet je 20.000 a u paris samo 15.000. stramite se zbog 5.000 jebani karte.

druga cinjenica. ekipi iz njemacka osvoio liga prvaka samo 2 puta izmedju 1993 godina do 2009 godina. znaci prvi 16 sezoni samo 2 tituli njemacka.

nakon sta ste ubacao f4 sistem i to srede njemacka u 15 godine njemci ima 6 tituli a ostatok evropa 9 tituli. 

pred 2010 omojer je bio 14-2 evropa vs njemaka. sa f4 u njemacka je 9-6 evropa vs njemacka. 

najmanje 4 puta barca bi pobedio nemci u dvoboj.

tako da ima ocigledna razlika pred f4 i nakon f4.

Slažem se....ali gledajući realno oni igraju najzahtjevniju domaću ligu ,dok brdo ostalih ekipa praktički nemaju konkurencije u svojim ligama

Amazing numbers for the Champions League final in Danish television yesterday! 775.000 in average watched the final on DR2, the market share was on 60% for DR and the number peaked on almost 900.000🔥 There’s around 6 million people living in Denmark.

da je tv2 (tv2 prenosi ep i sp) u danska prenosio tekma a ne ovoj kanal sa preplata onda mozda 2-3 milion bi gledao.

jos jedan razlog danski kompani da ulaga jos veci novcu u rukomet i vratiti ekipu iz glavni grad ag. 

da se podjestimo da 3 bundesliga kubova imaju danski general sponzor medju koj i flensburg,firma jysk. trebaju u danska uloziti taj novac.

laporta i dika mem dominiraju ponovo.