Caption: Logo of the EGCA – Champions League
The EGCA Competition Committee has made significant changes regarding its competitions for the year 2025. One of the most notable changes is that next year in the EGCA Champions League there will be a total of three qualification stages, Women’s Champions League will be played as an independent tournament and the application process for the European Grand Prix stages will become permanent.
Furthermore, the registration of host candidates for the Champions League, Women’s Champions League and Youth Championships 2025 will begin next Monday, 11th March and will continue until 14th June. The dates and organizers of these competitions will be announced during the Champions League Final Stage in Blankenberge, Belgium in the turn of June and July.
However, below you can read the entire overview and EGCA’s President Erkki Miinala’s thoughts on the changes made by the Competition Committee.
Champions League 2025
- Format of qualification stages and the Final Stage:
- We will have 3 qualification stages with maximum 8 participating clubs
- The qualification stage will run from Thursday to Sunday (Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the competition days)
- Three best clubs of each stage will be qualified to the Final Stage
- There will be 10 clubs at the Final Stage: the host club, 3 * 3 clubs from qualification stages. The Final Stage will run also from Thursday to Sunday (Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the competition days)
- The reigning champion won’t be automatically qualified to the Final Stage anymore
- The schedule of qualification stages and the Final Stage is following:
- Qualification stages would be played between February – April
- The Final Stage will be held between June – July
- The registration for host candidates will be open from 11th March to 14th June and the dates and organizers will be announced at the Final Stage in Blankenberge.
Women’s Champions League 2025
- There will be held own tournament weekend for the Women’s Champions League with maximum 10 participating clubs.
- The tournament will run from Thursday to Sunday (Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the competition days).
- The date for the Women’s Champions League tournament is open and host candidates can propose the best option.
- The registration of host candidates for the Women’s Champions League 2025 will run also between 11th March to 14th June and the date and organizer will be announced in Blankenberge as well.
Youth Championships 2025
- We will have own Youth Championships weekend with maximum 10 participating clubs.
- The tournament will run from Thursday to Sunday (Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the competition days)
- The date for the Youth Championships is open and host candidates can propose the best option.
- The registration of host candidates and announcement of the date and organizer will run the same as in the Champions League and Women’s Champions League.
European Grand Prix 2025
- There will be no more registration window for host candidates of the European Grand Prix stages. The registration is permanent and host candidates can download the registration form from our website and send it to us by email whenever they want.
- EGCA Competition Committee will deal with the application and approve if the proposed date and facilities are good enough.
- It no longer matters at what time of the year the European Grand Prix stage is held as long as the timing does not conflict with other important tournaments.
- The permanent registration form for host candidates will be published on egca.info website during April 2024.
- The European Grand Prix 2024 stages are already approved and registration for them is open here!
EGCA President’s Word
“The international club goalball competitions managing by EGCA are gaining strong ground in Europe and we aim to further solidify this position. One significant challenge we have faced is the frequent conflicts with other goalball competitions, be it IBSA’s major Championships, practice tournaments for national teams or domestic club competitions. Therefore, we want to initiate the registration process for organizer candidates well in advance and finalize our events for the coming year”, emphasizes Miinala regarding the decision for such an early registration for host candidates.
“The Champions League is growing rapidly and for this reason we wanted to include a third qualification stage so that next year we could have up to even 25 clubs participating in the Champions League. As for the Women’s Champions League we aim to develop and give female goalball players their own dedicated event weekend, where the stage and spotlight are entirely theirs. In this way we believe we can attract more participants to the Women’s Champions League. By streamlining the European Grand Prix tournaments reducing the organizers’ commitment to specific application deadlines and a particular timeframe during the year we aim to ease the pressure on organizer candidates to host these crucial low-threshold international club tournaments”, Miinala elaborates on the changes in the competition formats.