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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 (EHF), and the fifth edition since the merger with the EHF Cup Winners' Cup.

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:
 * (TH) – Additional berth for 2015–16 EHF Cup title holders
 * (CL) – Berth transferred from or to 2016–17 EHF Champions League
 * (CC) – Berth transferred from 2016–17 EHF Challenge Cup

Teams
League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: title holders; CL QS: 2016–17 EHF Champions League qualification stage losing teams).

Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at the EHF headquarters in Vienna, Austria):

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 (highlighted in bold) 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 first legs were played on 2–3 September and the second legs were played on 4 and 10–11 September 2015.


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1 Both legs were hosted by Käerjeng. 2 Both legs were hosted by Maccabi Rishon LeZion. 3 Both legs were hosted by Ankaraspor. 4 Both legs were hosted by Diomidis Argous. 5 Both legs were hosted by Porto. 6 Both legs were hosted by Prilep.

Round 2
A total of 32 teams, including 15 winners of the previous round, entered the draw for the second qualification round, which was held after the draw for the first qualifying round on Tuesday, 19 July 2016. The first legs were played on 8–9 October and the second legs will be played on 9 and 15–16 October 2016.

1 Order of legs reversed 2 Both legs were hosted by ZTR Zaporizhia. 3 Both legs were hosted by Górnik Zabrze.
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Round 3
A total of 32 teams, including 16 winners of the previous round, will enter the draw for the third qualification round, which will be held on Tuesday, 18 October 2016. The first legs will be played on 19–20 November and the second legs will be played on 26–27 November 2016.


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Draw and format
The draw of the EHF Cup group stage will take place on Tuesday, 29 November 2016. The 16 teams allocated into four pots will be drawn into four groups of four teams. The country protection rule was applied, i.e. two teams from the same country could not face each other in the same group.

On 3 December 2016, EHF announced the composition of the group phase seeding pots.

In each group, teams play against each other in a home-and-away 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.

Tiebreakers
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings (in descending order):
 * 1) number of points in matches of all teams directly involved;
 * 2) goal difference in matches of all teams directly involved;
 * 3) higher number of plus goals in matches of all teams directly involved;
 * 4) goal difference in all matches of the group;
 * 5) higher number of plus goals in all matches of the group;

If no ranking can be determined, a decision shall be obtained by drawing lots. Lots shall be drawn by the EHF, if possible in the presence of a responsible of each club.

Ranking of the second-placed teams
The ranking of the second-placed teams was carried out on the basis of the team's results in the group stage. Because the French side HBC Nantes, the organizers of the Final 4 tournament, finished on top of their group they qualified directly to the final tournament and only the top three second-placed teams qualified to the quarter-finals.

Draw and format
Because the hosts of the Final 4 tournament, HBC Nantes, finished the group stage among the group winners, they have clinched the direct ticket to the final weekend and decided that only three quarter-finals were played for the remaining spots in the final tournament. The draw of the EHF Cup quarter-finals took place on Tuesday 29 March 2016 at the EHF headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Six teams were positioned into two pots. Teams from the same group could not face each other in the quarter-finals. The country protection rule was not applied for the quarter-finals. Therefore, there were two national duels in this round.

In the quarter-finals, teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis, with the teams from second pot playing the first leg at home. The first pot contained the three group winners and the second pot contained the top three second-placed teams.


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