Logo of the EGCA – Champions League
EGCA – Champions League (ECL) is the greatest and biggest annual competition for the goalball clubs in Europe. The league is managed by European Goalball Club Association which has named EGCA Competition Committee to manage and monitor the league.
Below you can find links to the current ECL season, Season archive (included champions and the best scorers as well as results & stats of each season of ECL) and Scorers history of EGCA – Champions League. There is also more details about EGCA – Champions League below.
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MORE ABOUT ECL
The previous name for the EGCA – Champions League was Super European Goalball League (SEGL) which was founded in 2012 by the clubs: FIFH Malmo from Sweden, Näpäjä from Finland and Saltinis from Lithuania.
The purpose for the establishment of SEGL was and the main goal of the league is still to get the best clubs, athletes and coaches to compete together in a common league under the control of the best referees.
The all time first SEGL stage was played in the city of Lahti in Finland on 1st – 2nd December 2012. There were six participating teams in the tournament. There were three stages during the first season of SEGL and Saltinis was crowned as the all time first champion of the league.
Next SEGL season was played during autumn 2014 and Old Power from Espoo, Finland became the main team of the league instead Näpäjä. FIFH Malmo, Old Power and Saltinis hosted all the stages during season 2014 and 2015. Saltinis celebrated finally three consecutive titles of the first three seasons. Nerijus Montvydas from Saltinis became also the top scorer of each season between 2012 – 2015.
First live broadcasts from the SEGL stages were arranged during season 2014 and today all of the EGCA – Champions League stages are live streamed an broadcasted with the English commentary.
Saltinis was replaced by RGC Hansa from Germany as a main team of SEGL on season 2016 – 2017. Old Power became the 2nd club who managed to win the title of the league. Erkki Miinala was the top scorer of the season with record 99 goals.
Sporting CP from Portugal became the fourth main team of SEGL on season 2017 – 2018. The season included four stages and there were nine participating teams during the season. Sporting CP took their first champion title and Justas Pazarauskas from the same team was the top scorer of the season with 97 goals.
European Goalball Club Association started to manage SEGL on season 2018 – 2019 and the format of the competition was changed as well. The league was named SEGL – Champions League and Europe was divided geographically in two divisions; North and South. There were record 15 clubs to take part in the Division stages during the season but finally five of them performed at the final stage in Odivelas, Portugal. Sporting CP celebrated their second concecutive champion of the league while Fatmir Seremeti from FIFH Malmo was the top scorer of the season.
The format remained the same on season 2019 – 2020, but unfortunately the season had to be suspended after two stages in North and one stage in South due the beginning of the corona virus pandemic. All the results and statistics from stages still stand in the ECL Archive.
SEGL – Champions League made its comeback in the turn of September – October 2021 when the final and only stage of year 2021 was held in the city of Odivelas, Portugal and there were nine participating clubs in the tournament. Invasport Ukraine from Ukraine made an outstanding performance throughout the long tournament and they managed to reach their first champion title in the league. Klison Mapreni from Ha. Vi. 2 Bruxelles made remarkable 56 goals during the weekend and was crowned as the top scorer of the league.
SEGL – Champions League has been always a platform for new ideas and innovations. During the final stage in Odivelas there were used VAR (video assistant referee), camera technology to ensure goals, longballs and highballs; teams had a chance to use a green card to challenge some referee’s decisions. There were also visible 10 second shotclocks in the play hall as well for the first time in the major goalball competitions.
During SEGL season 2022 there were two qualification stages in both (North and South) divisions and SEGL stages were held first time in Belgium and Montenegro. The final stage took place in Rostock, Germany; Saltinis from Lithuania made great comeback to the league when they celebrated their 4th champion title in the league. Oliver Hörauf from Germann club Chemnitzer BC became the record holder of the best scorer on one season with his incredible 107 goals.
There was one significant change made for the SEGL Season 2023. There were only one qualification stage / division. Season 2023 broke the record when total 18 clubs took part in the league. Espoo, Finland was the place for qualification stage of the North Division and Lyon, France for the South Division. The final stage took place in Vilnius, Lithuania and the host club Saltinis made it again; they defeated Invasport Ukraine in the final game by 8-6 result and the club took their second consecutive champion and total 5th time “European Champion” title. Oliver Hörauf was awarded as the top scorer of the season while Justas Pazarauskas from Saltinis was the MVP of the final stage.
SEGL – Champions League was renamed to EGCA – Champions League before the season 2024.