2016–17 EHF Cup
The 2016–17 EHF Cup is the 36th edition of the EHF Cup, the second most important European handball club competition organised by the European Handball Federation, and the fifth edition since the merger with the EHF Cup Winners' Cup.
Team allocation
Federation ranking
For the 2016–17 EHF Cup, the national federations were allocated places according to their 2016–17 EHF country ranking, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2012–13 to 2014–15.Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, federations may have more or less teams participating in the EHF Cup, as noted below:
- – Additional berth for 2015–16 EHF Cup title holders
- – Berth transferred from or to 2016–17 EHF Champions League
- – Berth transferred from 2016–17 EHF Challenge Cup
| Rank | Federation | Coeff. | Teams | Notes |
| 1 |  Germany | 154.83 | 3 | +1 |
| 2 |  Spain | 122.83 | 3 | |
| 3 |  Hungary | 103.33 | 3 | |
| 4 |  France | 75.33 | 3 | |
| 5 |  Denmark | 70.00 | 3 | |
| 6 |  Poland | 54.22 | 3 | −1 |
| 7 |  Slovenia | 54.00 | 3 | |
| 8 |  Macedonia | 40.56 | 2 | −1 |
| 9 |  Romania | 36.34 | 2 | |
| 10 |  Sweden | 34.75 | 2 | −1 |
| 11 |  Croatia | 33.71 | 2 | +1 |
| 12 |  Russia | 31.00 | 2 | |
| 13 |  Portugal | 30.25 | 2 | |
| 14 |  Belarus | 28.75 | 1 | |
| 15 |  Switzerland | 22.33 | 1 | +1 |
| 16 |  Ukraine | 21.78 | 1 | |
| 17 |  Norway | 21.11 | 1 | +1 |
| Rank | Federation | Coeff. | Teams | Notes |
| 18 |  Serbia | 20.44 | 1 | +1 |
| 19 |  Slovakia | 13.56 | 1 | |
| 20 |  Turkey | 13.00 | 1 | |
| 21 |  Luxembourg | 11.13 | 1 | |
| 22 |  Finland | 11.00 | 1 | |
| 23 |  Greece | 11.00 | 1 | +1 |
| 24 |  Belgium | 9.71 | 1 | −1 |
| 25 |  Israel | 9.00 | 1 | |
| 26 |  Austria | 9.00 | 1 | |
| 27 |  Czech Republic | 6.17 | 1 | +1 |
| 28 |  Bosnia and Herzegovina | 5.78 | 1 | −1 |
| 29 |  Kosovo | 5.17 | 1 | |
| 30 |  Lithuania | 4.83 | 1 | −1 |
| 31 |  Italy | 4.78 | 1 | −1 |
| 32 |  Netherlands | 4.75 | 1 | +1 |
| 33 |  Cyprus | 4.33 | 1 | −1 |
| 34 |  Estonia | 4.17 | 1 |
| Rank | Federation | Coeff. | Teams | Notes |
| 35 |  Bulgaria | 3.50 | 1 | −1 |
| 36 |  Iceland | 3.29 | 1 | |
| 37 |  Montenegro | 3.14 | 1 | |
| 38 |  Moldova | 1.17 | 1 | |
| 39 |  Great Britain | 1.00 | 1 | |
| 40 |  Georgia | 0.17 | 1 | |
| 41 |  Albania | 0.00 | 0 | |
| 42 |  Andorra | 0.00 | 0 | |
| 43 |  Armenia | 0.00 | 0 | |
| 44 |  Azerbaijan | 0.00 | 0 | |
| 45 |  Faroe Islands | 0.00 | 0 | |
| 46 |  Republic of Ireland | 0.00 | 0 | |
| 47 |  Latvia | 0.00 | 0 | |
| 48 |  Liechtenstein | 0.00 | 0 | |
| 49 |  Malta | 0.00 | 0 | |
| 50 |  Monaco | 0.00 | 0 |
Distribution
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | |
| First qualifying round |
| |
| Second qualifying round |
| |
| Third qualifying round |
| |
| Group stage |
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| Knockout phase |
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Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:- TH: Title holders
- 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
- CW: Domestic cup winners
- CR: Domestic cup runners-up
- CL QS: Losers from the Champions League qualification stage.
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows :Qualification stage
The qualification stage consists of three rounds, which are played as two-legged ties using a home-and-away system. In the draws for each round, teams are allocated into two pots, with teams from Pot 1 facing teams from Pot 2. The winners of each pairing qualify for the following round.For each round, teams listed first played the first leg at home. In some cases, teams agreed to play both matches at the same venue.
Round 1
A total of 30 teams entered the draw for the first qualification round, which was held on Tuesday, 19 July 2016. The draw seeding pots were composed as follows:| Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
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|
;Notes:
1 Both legs were hosted by Handball Käerjeng.
2 Both legs were hosted by Maccabi Rishon LeZion.
3 Both legs were hosted by B.B. Ankaraspor.
4 Both legs were hosted by AC Diomidis Argous.
5 Both legs were hosted by FC Porto.
6 Both legs were hosted by RK Prilep 2010.
Round 2
A total of 32 teams entered the draw for the second qualifying round, which was held after the draw for the first qualifying round on Tuesday, 19 July 2016. The draw seeding pots were composed as follows:| Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
|
;Notes:
1 Order of legs reversed
2 Both legs were hosted by ZTR Zaporizhia.
3 Both legs were hosted by Górnik Zabrze.
Round 3
A total of 32 teams entered the draw for the third qualifying round, which was held on Tuesday, 18 October 2016. The draw seeding pots were composed as follows:| Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
|
|
;Notes:
1 Order of legs reversed
Group stage
Draw and format
The draw of the EHF Cup group stage took place on Thursday, 1 December 2016. The 16 teams allocated into four pots were drawn into four groups of four teams. The country protection rule was applied, i.e. two clubs from the same country could not face each other in the same group.In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays are 11–12 February, 17–19 February, 4–5 March, 11–12 March, 25–26 March, and 1–2 April 2017.
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings :
- number of points in matches of all teams directly involved;
- goal difference in matches of all teams directly involved;
- higher number of plus goals in matches of all teams directly involved;
- goal difference in all matches of the group;
- higher number of plus goals in all matches of the group;
Seeding
On 28 November 2016, EHF announced the composition of the group stage seeding pots.| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| KIF Kolding København Saint-Raphaël Var Handball Frisch Auf Göppingen MT Melsungen | HC Midtjylland Helvetia Anaitasuna Grundfos Tatabánya KC RD Ribnica | GOG Fraikin Granollers SC Magdeburg S.L. Benfica | Riihimäki Cocks Füchse Berlin Maccabi Tel Aviv FC Porto |