# 2017–18 CERH European League

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.

## Format changes

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

## Team allocation
### Federation ranking

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. 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 | D'Hondt points | D'Hondt points |
| 1 | Portugal | 20.10 | 4 | 10.048 | 6.699 | 5.024 |
| 2 | Spain | 19.79 | 4 | 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 | 1 | 3.042 | 2.028 | 1.521 |
| 7 | Austria | 3.86 | 0 | Not eligible | Not eligible | Not eligible |
| 8 | England | 3.00 | 1 | 1.500 | 1.000 | 0.750 |

### Teams

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

## Round dates

The schedule of the competition is as follows.
| Phase | Round | First leg | Second leg |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 4 November 2017 | 4 November 2017 |
| Group stage | Matchday 2 | 25 November 2017 | 25 November 2017 |
| Group stage | Matchday 3 | 9 December 2017 | 9 December 2017 |
| Group stage | Matchday 4 | 13 January 2018 | 13 January 2018 |
| Group stage | Matchday 5 | 17 February 2018 | 17 February 2018 |
| Group stage | Matchday 6 | 10 March 2018 | 10 March 2018 |
| Knockout phase | Quarter-finals | 25 March 2018 | 7 April 2018 |
| Knockout phase | Semi-finals | 12 May 2018 | 12 May 2018 |
| Knockout phase | Final | 13 May 2018 | 13 May 2018 |

## Draw

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:
* National champions of those leagues.
* 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.

### Pots

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) :
| Pot 1 (by Fed. rank) Team Pts Reus 80 Porto 135 Barcelona 160 Amatori Lodi 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

* $^{TH}$ Title holders, automatically placed in Group A.
* $^{POR}$ Portuguese league champions, automatically placed in Group B.
* $^{ESP}$ Spanish league champions, automatically placed in Group C.
* $^{ITA}$ Italian league champions, automatically placed in Group D.

## Group stage

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. 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.

### Group A

| 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 | Advance to quarterfinals | 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 | — |

### Group B

| 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 | Advance to quarterfinals | 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 | — |

### Group C

| 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 | Advance to quarterfinals | 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 | — |

### Group D

| 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 | Advance to quarterfinals | 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 | — |

## Knockout phase

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.

### Quarter-finals

| 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 |

### Final Four bracket

The Final Four will be played on 12 and 13 May in Porto, Portugal.
| Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final |
| Reus Deportiu | 2 |
| Barcelona | 4 | | |
| Barcelona | 4 | Barcelona | 4 |
| | | Porto | 2 |
| Porto | 5 | Porto | 2 |
| Sporting CP | 2 | | |