Photo from outside of the Sport Vlaanderen Blankenberge complex which is the main venue and accommodation place at the ECL24 finals
European Goalball Club Association and ViGe Noordzee, the organizing club of the Final Stage of the EGCA – Champions League & Women’s Champions League 2024 are happy to inform that after really hard work the date and place of the greatest club goalball event of year 2024 are finally confirmed.
The Final Stage of the ECL24 & Women’s Champions League 2024 will take place in the city of Blankenberge, Belgium on 27th June – 1st July 2024. Thursday 27th June will be the arrival day, Friday 28th – Sunday 30th June the competition days and Monday 1st July the day of departure.
Blankenberge is a seaside city and a municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The population of Blankenberge is around 20 000 inhabitants. Blankenberge is one of the most important seaside resorts on the Belgian coast in terms of tourist numbers and hotel reservations. It possesses a long sandy beach, and a 350-m long art-deco pier, the Belgium Pier, constructed in 1933. A structure that is unique on the Belgian coast. Read more about Blankenberge here
The main venue of the competition will be the Sport Vlaanderen of Blankenberge which is owned by the goverment of Flemish. The participating clubs, referees and organizers will be also accommodated at this great sport complex. D’hoagploate is and the second play hall and it locates under 1 km walking distance from the main venue. Both halls have a taraflex floor. Read more about the Sport Vlaanderen Blankenberge here
Photo of the play hall of the Sport Vlaanderen
There will be eight strongest goalball clubs of Europe competing for the “European Champion” title at the Final Stage of the ECL24: host club Noordzee, the reigning champion Saltinis (LTU), Top 3 clubs of the Krakow qualification stage and Top 3 clubs of the Berlin qualification stage. Registration of participating clubs for the qualification stages is underway and will run till 1st December, please register your club along by clicking here.
There will be maximum 10 clubs in the Women’s Champions League 2024 tournament; the host club Noordzee and Top 3 clubs of last Women’s Champions League: Old Power (FIN), FIFH Malmo (SWE) and RGC Hansa (GER) are automatically qualified. The registration for the Women’s Champions League will be kicked-off in the beginning of year 2024.
The tournament director, Karen Verwulgen told how did their club end up to apply as a host candidate of the ECL24 Finals as well as how difficult it was to find a new date and place for the competition because of the date change of IBSA European B Championships:
“After organizing editions of the Bruges Open International Goalballl Tournament, we thought it would be nice to have the best players and clubs of Europe as guest in Belgium. It was very difficult to find a new date and place for the competition because In Belgium, lots of organisations and clubs need to lock their dates for training and competition more than one year before the actual day of action. In a brainstorm with our players, many locations in Bruges were analyzed. None of them passed the conditions for this big event. except for one, Sport Vlaanderen Blankenberge. Only one problem, they have only 1 venue on their location. Because of training camps in many years at this location, we had the experience well to sleep at the location but to exercise in a venue from Blankenberge city. Both partners were very enthusiastic about this event. They were very happy with our proposal and we decided immediately to keep ECL in Blankenberge”.
“We’re looking forward to the games. The best clubs of Europe will play against each other. We hope to see some high- quality Goalball. Noordzee has the reputation to be good at organizing international Goalball tournaments, example: Bruges Open, Open West- Flemish Cup. Lots of players, staff members and referees are always happy to return to one of our events”, Karen continued.
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