Champions League draw
The Champions League group phase draw took place in the splendid Imperial Hofburg Palace, venue of the yearly European Volley Gala.
The three Italians, Trentino Diatec, Modena Volley and Cucine Lube Civitanova are all seeded along with Kazan (the holders) Belgorod, Moscow (Cev Cup winner) and the Polish champions of Rzeszow. There will be one seed in each of the seven groups in which the 28 teams have been divided.
The group phase will begin on November 3 and finish on January 26. The winner of each group as well as the best five seconds will go through to the playoffs 12. The venue for the final four to be played on April 16-17 is still to be decided. It will be hosted by a team that qualifies from this first phase.
Here are the seven groups:
POOL A: Belogorie BELGOROD (RUS), Arkas IZMIR (TUR), BERLIN Recycling Volleys (GER), Marek Union-Ivkoni DUPNITSA (BUL)
POOL B: Dinamo MOSCOW (RUS), PARIS Volley (FRA), VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN (GER), Ziraat Bankasi ANKARA (TUR)
POOL C: TRENTINO Diatec (ITA), TOURS VB (FRA), PAOK THESSALONIKI (GRE), Noliko MAASEIK (BEL)
POOL D: Zenit KAZAN (RUS), Halkbank ANKARA (TUR), Hypo Tirol INNSBRUCK (AUT), Budvanska Rivijera BUDVA (MNE)
POOL E: Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA (ITA), Knack ROESELARE (BEL), Dukla LIBEREC (CZE), PGE Skra BELCHATOW (POL)
POOL F: MODENA Volley (ITA), Lotos Trefl GDANSK (POL), ACH Volley LJUBLJANA (SLO), Vojvodina NS Seme NOVI SAD (SRB, Challenge Cup winner)
POOL G: Asseco Resovia RZESZOW (POL), Volley behappy2 ASSE-LENNIK (BEL), Tomis CONSTANTA (ROU), #Dragons LUGANO (SUI)
Calendar:
LEAGUE ROUND
6 games (each team meet twice home and away). First round on November 3-4-5
PLAYOFFS DRAW
28 January 2016
PLAYOFFS 12
First leg on 16-17-18 February 2016, return leg on 1-2-3 March 2016
PLAYOFFS 6
15-16-17 March 216, and 22-23-24 March 2016
FINAL FOUR
16-17 April 2016
