1996–97 CERH European League

The 1996–97 CERH European League was the 32nd edition of the CERH European League organized by CERH. Its Final Four was held in Barcelona, Spain.

Format changes[]

As a result of the expansion of the competition, two preliminary rounds were played before the group stage, composed by eight teams divided into two groups of four each one, thus qualifying the two first qualified teams to the Final Four.

Preliminary round[]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
	11–8		6–3	5–5
Reus Deportiu	4–5		4–2	0–3
	3–26	Vic	1–9	2–17
	8–12	La Vendéenne	5–4	3–8
Herne Bay	7–11	Quévert	4–7	3–4

First round[]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Cronenberg	6–23	Porto	3–10	3–13
Barcelona	24–2		14–1	10–1
Genève	2–10	Novara	1–1	1–9
La Vendéenne	w.o.	Benfica	w.o.	w.o.
Quévert	4–26	Igualada	1–11	3–15
	19–1		12–0	7–1
	6–5	Barcelos	4–3	2–2
Liceo	7–4	Vic	6–3	1–1

Group stage[]

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

The two first qualified teams advanced to the Final Four.

Group A[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		IGU	POR	NOV
1	Igualada	6	4	0	2	21	9	+12	8	Advance to Final Four		—	4–3	4–1	7–0
2	Porto	6	4	0	2	24	21	+3	8			2–1	—	5–4	4–2
3	Novara	6	3	1	2	23	17	+6	7			3–0	7–5	—	7–2
4		6	0	1	5	8	29	−21	1			0–5	3–5	1–1	—

Group B[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LIC	BAR		VEN
1	Liceo	6	4	1	1	43	19	+24	9	Advance to Final Four		—	4–1	4–0	12–1
2	Barcelona	6	3	2	1	46	16	+30	8			5–5	—	4–3	25–2
3		6	3	1	2	32	19	+13	7			10–4	1–1	—	10–3
4	La Vendéenne	6	0	0	6	12	79	−67	0			2–14	1–10	3–8	—

Final four[]

The Final Four was played in the Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona, Spain.

Barcelona achieved their eleventh title.

Bracket[]

	Semifinals				Final
	Barcelona	3
	Igualada	2
					Barcelona	9
					Liceo	2
	Liceo	6
	Porto	8
					Third place
					Igualada (p)	3
					Porto	3

References[]

External links[]

• CERH website