The draw has been made for the Last 16 of the VELUX EHF Champions League at the VELUX Group headquarters in Horsholm near Copenhagen, Denmark.

Each tie is over two legs taking place on 14-18 March and 21-25 March.

Füchse Berlin (GER) – HSV Hamburg (GER)

Montpellier (FRA) – FC Barcelona (ESP)

Wisla Plock (POL) – THW Kiel (GER)

Kadetten Schaffhausen (SUI) – Atletico Madrid (ESP)

Ademar Leon (ESP) – MKB Veszprém (HUN)

Vive Targi Kielce (POL) – Cimos Koper (SLO)

Metalurg Skopje (MAC) – Zagreb (CRO)

First matches (17/18 March) Second matches (24./25 March)

IK Sävehof (SUE) – AG Copenhague (DAN)

FC Barcelona Intersport Handball Manager Xavier O’Callaghan said:
“The draw was not lucky for us and it is becoming a tradition for us to have a tough opening in the draw but these things happen and it happened last year but we won the final. If you want to be the champions you have to beat all the opponents no matter if it is at the beginning or end of the season – we will try our best to compete against a top-class team like Montpellier.

Fuchse Berlin Manager Stefan Guter said:

It’s a great success for us to reach the last 16 and we knew before the draw that we would face a very tough opponent. HSV Hamburg are one of the strongest teams in Europe who are German champions and have appeared in the VELUX EHF FINAL4 before. We and the fans will enjoy two close games.

Kadetten Schaffhausen Marketing Representative Eva-Maria Kröger said:
“I think this will be a very, very strong game for us because we are playing a former winner of the Champions League so we will see what happens.

“We hope for a win against Madrid, it will be great, but I think it is not so easy for us. The BBC Arena will have many, many spectators because Atletico Madrid are a great team and there will be over 3,000 spectators there.”

HC Metalurg General Secretary Zoran Cvetanovski said:
“This is a great moment for Macedonian handball with Metalurg making new club handball history this season.  We are very much enjoying this season and I very much hope that we will get another good result.

“For sure we need a victory at home in the first leg and this season we are playing a very strong defence and are very good at our home stadium which holds 10,000 fans who give us great support and I think it will be the same in this match against Zagreb.

Reale Ademar Leon Manager José C. Ludena Montenegro said:
“We are very strong in our home matches in Leon and we had a really good Group Phase but Veszprém are a very good team.

“I think that, at this moment, Veszprém are the better team as we have some problems with injuries. Veszprém have the power at the moment for me.”

This Saturday 3rd March county teams from the North and South of England will play each other in intensive Handball competition at the Bethnal Green Academy, Tower Hamlets.

Teams from Cheshire,  Merseyside, Bedfordshire and East London will compete against each other before teams from the North and South of England face each other in a full length match.  The action starts at the excellent Bethnal Green Academy facility, which has seating for 200 spectators at 12.15 East London v Bedfordshire and the last match North v South begins at 3.30pm.

This weekend the stakes are raised in the Men’s National Handball League when London teams face each other in the first play-offs weekend in the South of England area.  In both the first and second divisions crossover matches are taking place at Score Centre Leyton to decide the teams that will go forward to the final stages of the league.

Matches start at 12.00pm London GD v Newham Flames H.C., 2:00pm Thames H.C v University College London, 4.00pm  Imperial College v Ruislip Eagles H.C.

Tomorrow Sunday 26th February London G.D. 12.00pm and Ruislip Eagles H.C. 2.00pm are in action at Score Centre again.

London University Handball teams travel north to Manchester this weekend to compete in the 2012 British University Handball Championships.

Teams from across the country will do battle in the two-day event which takes place at Sugden Sports Centre, with some of the matches also being played at the nearby Energy Box and Belle Vue.

The event is being organised by the Association of British University Handball Clubs (ABUHC) which represents Handball in British Universities.

Saturday’s games begin at 9am and go right through to 6.30pm, while Sunday sees handball action from 9-5pm.

The teams are split into five male groups and four female groups, with group matches on Saturday and Sunday morning, before the knockout stages on Sunday.

Good luck to Imperial College and University College London in the championships.  Details of matches can be found here: http://www.abuhc.com/the-matches.html

MEN’S DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE

11/02/12 Score Centre, Leyton
14.00 Newham Flames v UCL
16.00 Ruislip Eagles v Imperial

11/02/12 Bethnal Green Academy
16.00 London GD v Thames

MEN’S NATIONAL LEAGUE

12/02/12 Score Centre, Leyton
16.00 London GD v Ruislip Eagles HC