Draw of the group stage in the IWBF Champions League
Lottery luck in cup competitions has always been foreign to RSV Lahn-Dill and so Fortuna has struck again this time and gave the Wetzlarer Rollis the geographically farthest slot. In the group stage of the European premier class at the beginning of February 2022, the Wetzlar team will have to travel to Tel Aviv in Israel, where it will meet the local national champion Ilan Ramat Gan.
In Group C of the IWBF Champions League, head coach Janet Zeltinger’s team will also face Spanish first division club BSR ACE Gran Canaria and the two Italian Serie A representatives ASD Santo Stefano Sport and GSD Porto Torres in the Israeli metropolis. RSV Lahn-Dill must occupy at least second place in this group of five in Tel Aviv in order to reach the quarterfinals.
The business trip to Tel Aviv also places high logistical demands on the seven-time European champion, as entry into Israel is currently subject to high restrictions due to the corona pandemic, including a quarantine lasting several days. This is currently difficult to combine with the schedule in the domestic RBBL. So the RSV Lahn-Dill will have to wait and hope for changed entry requirements in the further course of the year. The club is already in contact with the Israeli Embassy in Berlin in this regard.
In Group A of the IWBF Champions League, hosts UnipolSai Briantea ’84 Cantu, Hornets Le Cannet (France), TSK Merkezi Engelliler SK (Turkey), Beit Halochem Haifa (Israel) and RBBL representative BG Baskets Hamburg will meet at the same time in Cantu, Italy. Group B in Albacete CS Meaux (France), BKIS St. Petersburg (Russia), Deca Amicacci Giulianova (Italy), hosts BSR Amiab Albacete and the Cologne 99ers from the Bundesliga. The German champions RSB Thuringia Bulls are the fourth team from the RBBL to qualify for the quarterfinals in mid-March.
Photo: Kai Pilger – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78962271