Continental Cup grows
by Martin Merk|21 JUN 2019
SonderjyskE Vojens will be one of the hosts of the last preliminary round of the Continental Cup in November.
photo: Annemette Stollig
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The teams, groups, dates and venues for the IIHF Continental Cup of the upcoming 2019/2020 season have been confirmed on Friday at the Continental Cup meeting with the clubs in Budapest.

The biggest news is the extension of the Continental Cup with a new group and three additional teams. 20 teams from 20 countries will play for the Continental Cup’s winners’ plate in seven different groups and four stages. It includes teams from across Europe, most of them national champions, except from the six founding leagues of the Champions Hockey League.

The teams will not only play for a chance to move on to the Continental Cup Final but the winner of the final tournament in January can also be invited to play in the Champions Hockey League the following season pending formal approval by the CHL board.

The third preliminary round, which will determine the four finalists, will take place in Denmark and Poland from 15-17 November 2019.

SonderjyskE Vojens is the first Danish club in six years to join the competition and like last time will host a group at its 5,000-capacity arena in Vojens where it will host Great Britain’s Nottingham Panthers, Amiens Gothiques from France and a qualifier from the second round.

Cracovia Krakow will host the other group in Poland and welcome Kazakh champion Beibarys Atyrau, Neman Grodno from Belarus and a qualifier.

The top-two teams of each of these groups will advance to the final tournament that will be played at the arena of one of the finalists from 10 to 12 January 2020.

The groups of the second round from 18 to 20 October 2019 will be hosted by Ukrainian champion HC Donbass in Brovary in the Kyiv region and by Italian champion Ritten Sport.

The first round already starts in three month (20-22 September) and now includes two groups instead of one as part of the extension. Group A will be hosted by Turkish champion Zeytinburnu Istanbul while Group B will take place in Mechelen, Belgium. Host HYC Herentals recently won the BeNeLiga, the championship of the Netherlands and Belgium.

Click here for an overview of all groups.
The participants of the IIHF Continental Cup in the upcoming season met on Friday in Budapest.
photo: Nicolas Marbach