Real Club de Polo de Barcelona will host the ABN AMRO EHL Men’s KO16 at Camp Eduardo Dualde from October 6th to 8th to raise the curtain on the 17th season of the world’s best club competition.
Reacting to the announcement, José Maria Batista, the Real Club de Polo Hockey President said: “Hosting the EHL KO16 is an exciting challenge for the club and the team, one more challenge we will have to look forward to this season.”
Polo player Marc Reyné added: “Playing the KO16 at home is very exciting and very motivating. I am sure that it will give us that extra motivation to fight to the maximum to reach the FINAL8”
“I am so happy to see the EHL return after 14 years to play at Real Club de Polo,” said EHF President Marijke Fleuren.
“The club has such a long and frequent history in the EHL. I am sure it will be a very memorable weekend in such an iconic city!”
The event will see 16 clubs from 11 different countries competing in a straight knock-out format. The draw to see who plays who will be made next week in Barcelona and will be broadcast on the EHL’s Facebook page LIVE. Here’s the list of teams who will be in the line-up:
SV Kampong, HC Bloemendaal (Netherlands), Mannheimer HC, Harvestehuder THC (Germany), Royal Léopold, Waterloo Ducks (Belgium), Real Club de Polo de Barcelona (Spain), Old Georgians, Holcombe (England), CA Montrouge, Racing Club de France (France), Post SV (Austria), Western Wildcats (Scotland), Banbridge (Ireland), Rotweiss Wettingen (Switzerland), TJ Plzen Litice (CZE)
For teams who win two successive games, they will earn one of the precious FINAL8 tickets on offer where they will join already qualified Pinoké, Rot-Weiss Köln, Gantoise and Club de Campo de Madrid.
It will be the second time the Barcelona club has hosted the event, the previous time being ROUND1A in 2009.
That edition featured an array of world stars like Santi Freixa, Moritz Fürste, Pau Quemada, Jeroen Hertzberger, Robert van der Horst, Matias Rey and Florian Fuchs.
This year promises to provide similar star quality from across the continent, heralding another thrilling year for the competition.
The draw for the EHL Men’s KO16 will take place on July 26 on the Euro Hockey League Facebook page.
The club will update members as and when tickets become available following next week’s draw.