SEHA League

The South East Handball Association League, or simply the SEHA League, is a regional men's club handball league in Southeast Europe, featuring teams from Croatia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovakia. Due to sponsorship reasons, the league is also known as the Gazprom League (or the Gazprom South Stream League earlier).[1] The league exists alongside scaled-down national leagues of the participating nations and all of SEHA League teams join their respective country's own competitions in late spring after the SEHA League regular season and post-season have been completed. The league's headquarters are in Zagreb, Croatia, and the league's president is Božidar Đurković. 2011–12 was the first season of the competition, with Vardar from Skopje becoming the first champions.

SEHA Liga
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2022–23 SEHA League
SportHandball
Founded2011 (2011)
No. of teams8
Country Croatia
 Hungary
 North Macedonia
 Serbia
 Slovakia
 Belarus (East)
 Bosnia and Herzegovina (former)
 China (East)
 Montenegro (former)
 Romania (former)
 Russia (East)
 Slovenia (former)
 Ukraine (former)
ConfederationEHF
Most recent
champion(s)
Hungary Telekom Veszprém (5th title)
(2021–22)
Most titlesHungary Telekom Veszprém
North Macedonia Vardar 1961
(5 titles each)

History of the league

The initiative for establishing the regional South-East European handball league was presented during the first half of 2011. After the idea of forming a Regional Sparkasse League failed, during July 2011 it was agreed that the first season of the SEHA League would start in September of the same year. In the first season of SEHA League, 12 clubs took part, but their number reduced during the following years. In the 2020–21 season, there are 10 clubs from 7 countries.

The league is based on a regular season and the Final Four, in which the four best placed clubs from the regular season participate. The most successful participants of the SEHA League during its first eight seasons is Vardar with five titles. Vardar became the first team with more than one title when it won the 2013–14 edition.

During the 2021–22, season was interrupted after Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led Motor Zaporizhzhia left the league, and Meshkov Brest being suspended. Siniša Ostoić, managing director, confirmed that the next season will not include teams from Belarus and Ukraine.[2] Also, European Handball Federation suspended both Russia and Belarus, meaning they are not able to play any competitive game with other EHF members.[3] The following season these clubs founded its own Eastern Division.[4]

2022–23 season

Below is the list of clubs that are members of the 2022–23 SEHA League season.
Country Team City Venue (capacity)
Croatia Croatia Nexe Našice Sportska dvorana kralja Tomislava (2,500)
PPD Zagreb Zagreb Dom sportova 2 (3,100)
Hungary Hungary Telekom Veszprém Veszprém Veszprém Aréna (5,096)
North Macedonia North Macedonia Eurofarm Pelister Bitola Sports Hall Boro Čurlevski (3,700)
Vardar 1961 Skopje Jane Sandanski Arena (6,500)
Serbia Vojvodina Novi Sad Sportski centar Slana Bara (2,000)
Partizan Belgrade Sportski centar Voždovac (2,300)
Slovakia Slovakia Tatran Prešov Prešov Tatran Handball Arena (4,870)

Final Four tournaments

Results by season

Below is the list of winners, finalists and other participants of the Final Four SEHA tournaments.

Year Host Final Match for third place
Champion Score Second Place Third Place Score Fourth Place
2011–12
Details
Zagreb North Macedonia
Vardar
21–18 North Macedonia
Metalurg
Croatia
Zagreb
31–29 Slovakia
Tatran Prešov
2012–13
Details
Skopje Croatia
Zagreb
25–24
a.e.t.
North Macedonia
Vardar
North Macedonia
Metalurg
26–21 Belarus
Meshkov Brest
2013–14
Details
Novi Sad North Macedonia
Vardar
29–27 Belarus
Meshkov
Croatia
Zagreb
36–28 Slovakia
Tatran
2014–15
Details
Veszprém Hungary
Veszprém
32–21 Belarus
Meshkov
Croatia
Zagreb
26–23 North Macedonia
Vardar
2015–16
Details
Varaždin Hungary
Veszprém
28–26 North Macedonia
Vardar
Croatia
PPD Zagreb
24−23 Belarus
Meshkov Brest
2016–17
Details
Brest North Macedonia
Vardar
26–21 Hungary
Veszprém
Belarus
Meshkov Brest
23−19 Croatia
PPD Zagreb
2017–18
Details
Skopje North Macedonia
Vardar
26–24 Croatia
PPD Zagreb
Slovenia
Celje
31–28 Belarus
Meshkov Brest
2018–19
Details
Brest North Macedonia
Vardar
26–23 Croatia
PPD Zagreb
Belarus
Meshkov Brest
24–19 Croatia
Nexe
2019–20
Details
Zadar Hungary
Telekom Veszprém
35–27 North Macedonia
Vardar
Belarus
Meshkov Brest
29–24 Croatia
PPD Zagreb
2020–21
Details
Zadar Hungary
Telekom Veszprém
27–27
(pen. 4–2)
Croatia
PPD Zagreb
Ukraine
Motor Zaporizhzhia
31–20 Belarus
Meshkov Brest
2021–22
Details
Zadar Hungary
Telekom Veszprém
32–30 Croatia
PPD Zagreb
North Macedonia
Eurofarm Pelister
27–23 Croatia
Nexe

Hosts

Year Final four host Hall Date Attendance Final (att.)
2011–12 Croatia Zagreb Arena Zagreb 14–15 April 2012 5,500 1,500
2012–13 North Macedonia Skopje Boris Trajkovski Sports Center 12–13 April 2013 13,450 5,500
2013–14 Serbia Novi Sad SPC Vojvodina 11–13 April 2014 15,710 5,160
2014–15 Hungary Veszprém Veszprém Aréna 25–29 March 2015 16,100 5,000
2015–16 Croatia Varaždin Varaždin Arena 1–3 April 2016 20,611 5,486
2016–17 Belarus Brest Universal Sports Complex Victoria 7–9 April 2017 12,150 2,750
2017–18 North Macedonia Skopje Jane Sandanski Arena 13–15 April 2018 16,650 6,000
2018–19 Belarus Brest Universal Sports Complex Victoria 2–3 April 2019 11,135 3,210
2019–20 Croatia Zadar Krešimir Ćosić Hall 4–6 September 2020 2,000 500
2020–21 Croatia Zadar Krešimir Ćosić Hall 3–5 September 2021
2021–22 Croatia Zadar Krešimir Ćosić Hall 2–4 September 2022

Records and statistics

By club

Club Won Runner-up Years won Years runner-up
5
3
2012, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019
2013, 2016, 2020
5
1
2015, 2016, 2020, 2021, 2022
2017
1
4
2013
2018, 2019, 2021, 2022
0
2
2014, 2015
0
1
2012
Total1111

By country

Club / Nation Won Runner-up Finals
 North Macedonia
5
4
9
 Hungary
5
1
6
 Croatia
1
4
5
 Belarus
0
2
2
Total111122

Participating clubs

Correct as of the 2022–23 SEHA League season.
Bold indicates the winning years.

Club Seasons Years
North Macedonia Vardar 1961
12
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Croatia PPD Zagreb
12
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Slovakia Tatran Prešov
12
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Croatia Nexe Našice
12
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Belarus Meshkov Brest
10
2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Serbia RK Vojvodina
9
2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
North Macedonia RK Metalurg Skopje
7
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019
Hungary Telekom Veszprém
7
2015, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Bosnia and Herzegovina Borac
5
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
Bosnia and Herzegovina Izviđač
4
2012, 2013, 2017, 2019
North Macedonia RK Eurofarm Pelister
4
2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Montenegro Lovćen
3
2012, 2013, 2014
Serbia Metaloplastika
3
2012, 2020, 2021
Serbia Partizan
3
2014, 2022, 2023
Slovenia Celje
2
2017, 2018
Slovenia Gorenje
2
2017, 2018
Ukraine Motor Zaporizhzhia
2
2020, 2021
Russia Spartak Moscow / CSKA Moscow
2
2020
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosna
1
2012
Serbia Crvena zvezda
1
2012
Montenegro Sutjeska
1
2012
Bosnia and Herzegovina Sloga
1
2013
Serbia Radnički
1
2015
North Macedonia Maks Strumica
1
2016
Serbia Spartak Vojput
1
2016
Serbia Dinamo Pančevo
1
2018
Romania CSA Steaua București
1
2019
Serbia Železničar
1
2019
China Beijing Sport University
1
2020

References

  1. "SEHA - GAZPROM LEAGUE - Official website". SEHA. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  2. "SINIŠA OSTOIĆ: 'SEHA liga ide dalje, ali bez klubova iz Ukrajine i Bjelorusije'" [SINIŠA OSTOIĆ: "SEHA league goes on, but without clubs from Ukraine and Belarus"]. Nacional (in Croatian). 6 August 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  3. "Russia and Belarus suspended by EHF". Handball planet. 1 March 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  4. "WORLD NEWS". WORLD NEWS. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
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