2017–18 CERH European League

2017–18 CERH European League

Tournament details
Dates	4 November 2017 – 13 May 2018
Teams	16 (from 6 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Barcelona (22nd title)
Runners-up	Porto
Tournament statistics
Matches played	55
Goals scored	439 (7.98 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Gonçalo Alves (20 goals)
← 2016–17 2018–19 → All statistics correct as of 5 November 2017.

The 2017–18 CERH European League was the 53rd season of Europe's premier club roller hockey tournament organised by CERH, and the 21st season since it was renamed from European Champion Clubs' Cup to the CERH Champions League/European League.

Reus Deportiu were the defending champions. Barcelona won the trophy for a record 22nd time, winning 4–2 over Porto, who lost their 9th consecutive final and 11th overall, 7 of which against Barcelona.

There are not any format changes in the competition system but, as new, the CERH introduced possession clocks as in basketball.^[1] Each possession would have a maximum of 45 seconds.

For the 2017–18 CERH European League, the associations are allocated places according to their Federation points, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from the 2013–14 to the 2015–16 seasons. Points are calculated by dividing the total of points accumulated by the number of participating teams.

Participation in the European League is reserved to that federations that have an effective capacity to organize annually their own national championships.^[2] They all will have at least one place. For allocating the other nine places, the D'Hondt method is used with the coefficient of each federation.

In case of resigns, priority will be given according to the order established by the D'Hondt method.

Rank	Association	Coeff.	Teams	D'Hondt points
1	Portugal	20.10	4	10.048	6.699	5.024
2	Spain	19.79		9.959	6.640	4.980
3	Italy	15.18	3	7.591	5.061	3.795
4	France	8.84	2	4.420	2.947	2.210
5	Germany	6.27	1	3.136	2.091	1.568
6	Switzerland	6.08		3.042	2.028	1.521
7	Austria	3.86	0	Not eligible
8	England	3.00	1	1.500	1.000	0.750

League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Title holders). As English champions King's Lynn resigned to its place, following the allocation criteria, Italian Follonica occupied its vacant berth.

Participant teams were confirmed on 19 September 2017.^[3]

Group stage
Porto (1st)	Barcelona (1st)	Amatori Lodi (1st)	La Vendéenne (1st)
Benfica (2nd)	ReusTH (2nd)	Forte dei Marmi (2nd)	Quévert (2nd)
Oliveirense (3rd)	Liceo (3rd)	Viareggio (3rd)	Iserlohn (1st)
Sporting CP (4th)	Vic (4th)	Follonica (4th)	Montreux (1st)

The schedule of the competition is as follows.^[4]

The 16 teams were allocated into four pots, with the title holders, Reus Deportiu, being placed directly as head-team of the Group A. The other three seeded teams will be from the three top ranked federations according to these priorities:

1. National champions of those leagues.
2. Highest ranked teams.

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a home-and-away round-robin format.

The group stage will be drawn on 23 September 2017 in Lisbon.^[1]

Below are the participating teams (with their points at the CERS ranking). Title holders and the champions of the three top leagues in the ranking were assigned to pot 1, while the rest of the pots were established by nationalities.

Pot 1 (by Fed. rank) Team Pts Reus[TH] 80 Porto[POR] 135 Barcelona[ESP] 160 Amatori Lodi[ITA] 45

Pot 2 (Portugal) Team Pts Benfica 155 Oliveirense 90 Sporting CP 52

Pot 3 (Italy) Team Pts Forte dei Marmi 80 Viareggio 66 Follonica 25

Pot 4 (Spain) Team Pts Liceo 100 Vic 95

Pot 5 (rest of Europe) Team Pts Quévert 65 La Vendéenne 36 Iserlohn 36 Montreux 6

Notes

Barcelona

Vic

Liceo

Reus

Lisbon

Porto

Oliveirense

Forte Marmi

Amatori Lodi

Viareggio

Follonica

La Vendéenne

Dinan Quévert

Montreux

Iserlohn

Lisbon teams
Benfica
Sporting CP

class=notpageimage|

Location of teams of the 2017–18 CERH European League group stage.
Red: Group A; Green: Group B; Blue: Group C; Yellow: Group D.

The 16 teams were allocated into four pots, with the title holders, Reus Deportiu, being placed as seeded team in the Group A automatically. The other 3 seeded teams, Porto, Barcelona and Amatori Lodi, were automatically placed in groups B, C and D, respectively.^[3] The rest of the teams were drawn into four groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a home-and-away round-robin format.

A total of six national associations were represented in the group stage.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		REU	OLI	VIA	ISE
1	Reus Deportiu	6	5	1	0	37	15	+22	16	Advance to quarterfinals		—	5–0	4–4	10–2
2	Oliveirense	6	3	1	2	33	19	+14	10			3–6	—	9–3	8–1
3	Viareggio	6	2	2	2	31	24	+7	8			2–4	4–4	—	15–2
4	Iserlohn	6	0	0	6	10	53	−43	0			4–8	0–9	1–3	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		POR	FOL	VEN	VIC
1	Porto	6	5	1	0	50	17	+33	16	Advance to quarterfinals		—	7–4	8–3	13–2
2	Follonica	6	4	0	2	29	29	0	12			1–7	—	6–4	9–6
3	La Vendéenne	6	1	1	4	21	34	−13	4			3–11	5–8	—	1–1
4	Vic	6	0	2	4	13	33	−20	2			4–4	0–1	0–5	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		BAR	BEN	FOR	MON
1	Barcelona	6	6	0	0	29	6	+23	18	Advance to quarterfinals		—	2–0	2–0	3–0
2	Benfica	6	3	1	2	36	21	+15	10			4–8	—	6–4	14–2
3	Forte dei Marmi	6	2	1	3	23	16	+7	7			2–4	1–1	—	12–1
4	Montreux	6	0	0	6	9	54	−45	0			0–10	4–11	1–4	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		SCP	LIC	LOD	QUE
1	Sporting CP	6	4	1	1	24	13	+11	13	Advance to quarterfinals		—	5–3	7–1	6–1
2	Liceo	6	3	2	1	23	16	+7	11			1–1	—	1–1	6–3
3	Amatori Lodi	6	2	2	2	19	24	−5	8			7–4	4–7	—	3–3
4	Quévert	6	0	1	5	11	24	−13	1			0–1	3–5	2–3	—

The knockout phase comprises a quarter-final round and the final four tournament. In the quarter-finals, group stage winners play against group stage runners-up, the latter hosting the first of two legs. The winners qualify for the final four, which will take place at the ground of one of the four finalists.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Liceo	6–8	Reus Deportiu	4–1	2–7
Benfica	5–11	Porto	3–2	2–9
Follonica	4–8	Barcelona	3–3	1–5
Oliveirense	4–6	Sporting CP	2–3	2–3

The Final Four will be played on 12 and 13 May in Porto, Portugal.

	Semifinals				Final
	Reus Deportiu	2
	Barcelona	4
					Barcelona	4
					Porto	2
	Porto	5
	Sporting CP	2

12 May 2018

Reus Deportiu	2–4	Barcelona
Raül Marín 4', 34'	Report	Pau Bargalló 2' Xavi Barroso 19' (pen.) Lucas Ordóñez 21' Pablo Álvarez 22'

Dragão Caixa, Porto

Referee: Paulo Rainha (POR), Joaquim Pinto (POR)

12 May 2018

Porto	5–2	Sporting CP
Antoni Baliu 8', 45' Hélder Nunes 9', 34' Gonçalo Alves 12' (pen.)	Report	Toni Pérez 22', 48'

Dragão Caixa, Porto

Referee: Óscar Valverde (ESP), Alberto López (ESP)

13 May 2018

Barcelona	4–2	Porto
Lucas Ordóñez 12' Pablo Alvarez 27' Pau Bargalló 32', 49'	Report	Gonçalo Alves 33' Hélder Nunes 36'

Dragão Caixa, Porto

Referee: Alessandro Eccelsi (ITA), Filippo Fronte (ITA)

• 2017–18 CERS Cup
• 2017 CERH Continental Cup
• 2017–18 CERH Women's European Cup

• Comité Européen de Rink-Hockey (official website)