Handball CL: Oltchim and Gyor disagree over return leg

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Only two days after the completion of the Women´s EHF Champions League Main Round the playing dates, times and venues of the semi-finals matches were confirmed, European Handball Federation announced on Tuesday night.Both matches of the first leg will be played on Saturday 6 April as Larvik HK will play hosts to RK Krim Mercator at 15:15 hrs in Arena Larvik and Oltchim Valcea will take on Györi Audi ETO KC at 18:00 hrs in Traian Sport Hall.But the return match between the champions of Romania and Hungary will take place already on Thursday 11 April at 19:00 hrs in Veszprem arena, at the request of the Hungarian club which argued that on April 13 and 14 (when the return leg should normally have been played) the Veszprem arena is hosting a different event.

CS Oltchim President Petre Berbecaru announced that he disagrees with the EHF decision and has so far sent two memos to the European body. “We disagree with the date of April 11 approved by the EHF for the return leg against Gyor, coming only five days after the first leg game at home. First of all, apart from fatigue and the short time span between the two games, our team will be deprived of fans. Who can take two days off in the middle of the week only because Gyor doesn’t accept a different venue and date? The arena in Veszprem is not the only large capacity sports hall in Hungary. There are two others in Budapest, in Pecs, in Szeged, in Debrecen… Why does Gyor badly want Veszprem when that venue is occupied on the date of the return leg? It doesn’t seem fair at all. I proposed we switch the first leg and the return leg, but they went berserk, they don’t even want to hear that because they want to play the return leg at home,” Bebecaru stated.

The Hungarians asked for the return leg to be scheduled on April 11 because the Veszprem sports hall is hosting an exhibition on April 13-14, precisely the period in which the return leg against Oltchim was initially scheduled. The EHF approved the request without taking into account Oltchim’s protestations, Mediafax informs.