2016–17 SEHA League

The 2016–17 season was the sixth season of the SEHA (South East Handball Association) League and third under the sponsorship of the Russian oil and gas company Gazprom. Ten teams from seven countries (Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Slovakia and Slovenia) participated in that year's competition.

2016-17 SEHA League season
League	SEHA League
Sport	Handball
Duration	30 August 2016 – 16 March 2017
Number of games	90 (regular season) 94 (including F4 tournament)
Number of teams	10  Belarus (1 team)  Bosnia and Herzegovina (1 team)  Croatia (2 teams)  Hungary (1 team) Macedonia (2 teams)  Slovakia (1 team)  Slovenia (2 teams)
Regular season
Season champions	Vardar
Season MVP	Blaž Janc[1]
Top scorer	Blaž Janc (110 goals)
Final Four
Finals champions	Vardar
Runners-up	Telekom Veszprém
Finals MVP	Joan Cañellas

Telekom Veszprém were the defending champions. The SEHA League was consisted of two phases – the first has 18 rounds in which all teams play one home and one away game against each other. After that, the four best ranked clubs played on the Final Four tournament.

The campaign began on 30 August 2016 with the match between last year's runner up Vardar and fourth placed Meshkov Brest. The regular season ended on 16 March 2017, with the decisive match between PPD Zagreb and Meshkov Brest.

The Final Four tournament was held in the city of Brest and organised in cooperation with Meshkov Brest, from 7 April to 9 April 2017.^[2]

Team information

Venues and locations

Country	Team	City	Venue (Capacity)
Belarus	Meshkov Brest	Brest	Universal Sports Complex Victoria (3,740)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Izviđač CO	Ljubuški	Ljubuški Sports Hall (4,000)
Croatia	PPD Zagreb	Zagreb	Arena Zagreb (16,800)
	Nexe	Našice	Sportska dvorana (2,500)
Hungary	Telekom Veszprém	Veszprém	Veszprém Aréna (5,096)
Macedonia	Vardar	Skopje	Jane Sandanski Arena (6,000)
	Metalurg	Skopje	Avtokomanda Sports Hall (2,000)
Slovakia	Tatran Prešov	Prešov	City Hall Prešov (4,000)
Slovenia	Gorenje Velenje	Velenje	Red Hall (2,500)
	Celje Pivovarna Laško	Celje	Zlatorog Arena (5,500)

Izviđač CO PPD Zagreb Nexe Vardar Metalurg Gorenje Velenje Celje Pivovarna Lasko Location of teams in 2016-17 SEHA League (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia)

Meshkov Brest Location of teams in 2016-17 SEHA League (Belarus) Telekom Veszprém Location of teams in 2016-17 SEHA League (Hungary) Tatran Prešov Location of teams in 2016-17 SEHA League (Slovakia)

Personnel and kits

Following is the list of clubs competing in 2016–17 SEHA League, with their manager, team captain, kit manufacturer and shirt sponsor.

Team	Head coach	Team captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor (main)
Meshkov Brest	Serhiy Bebeshko	Dzmitry Nikulenkau	Hummel	BelGazpromBank
Izviđač CO	Zdenko Grbavac	Ivan Miličević	Hummel	Central Osiguranje
PPD Zagreb	Silvio Ivandija	Zlatko Horvat	Hummel	Prvo Plinarsko Društvo
Nexe	Zdenko Kordi	Marko Mrđenović	Jako	Nexe Grupa
Telekom Veszprém	Xavier Sabaté Caviedes	László Nagy	Adidas	Telekom
Vardar	Raúl González	Stojanče Stoilov	Hummel	Mlekara Zdravje
Metalurg	Lino Červar	Filip Kuzmanovski	Kempa	Duferco Makstil
Tatran Prešov	Rastislav Trtík	Radovan Pekár	ATAK Sportswear	Phoenix
Gorenje Velenje	Marko Šibila	Niko Medved	Kempa	Gorenje
Celje Pivovarna Laško	Branko Tamše	Luka Žvižej	Adidas	Laško

Coaching changes

Week	Club	Outgoing coach	Date of change	Incoming coach
6th	Gorenje Velenje	Marko Šibila	3 October 2016[3]	Borut Plaskan
8th	PPD Zagreb	Veselin Vujović	17 October 2016[4]	Silvio Ivandija
13th	Nexe	Zdenko Kordi	26 November 2016[5]	Hrvoje Horvat
F4	PPD Zagreb	Silvio Ivandija	3 April 2017[6]	Slavko Goluža

Regular season

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Vardar	18	15	2	1	599	510	+89	47	Final Four
2	Telekom Veszprém	18	14	2	2	521	458	+63	44
3	Meshkov Brest	18	11	2	5	552	500	+52	35
4	PPD Zagreb	18	11	1	6	496	469	+27	34
5	Celje Pivovarna Laško	18	11	0	7	561	545	+16	33
6	Gorenje Velenje	18	6	0	12	501	520	−19	18
7	Nexe	18	5	3	10	493	523	−30	18
8	Metalurg	18	5	2	11	453	472	−19	17
9	Tatran Prešov	18	4	1	13	469	548	−79	13
10	Izviđač CO	18	1	1	16	503	603	−100	4

Source: SEHA Standings

Results

Home \ Away	MES	IZV	ZAG	NEX	VES	VAR	MET	TAT	GOR	CEL
Meshkov Brest		40–29	28–28	37–29	16–19	30–35	31–26	33–25	26–24	36–29
Izviđač CO	26–34		26–28	27–30	25–31	27–33	24–24	33–28	32–36	31–32
PPD Zagreb	25–31	34–29		28–22	27–23	28–26	29–20	27–22	28–21	28–27
Nexe	28–27	39–29	23–25		29–29	27–30	27–22	25–31	29–27	26–35
Telekom Veszprém	31–30	36–31	28–25	27–23		28–28	33–21	32–28	36–27	32–25
Vardar	34–34	42–30	32–31	37–29	29–22		31–29	38–21	40–32	33–31
Metalurg	24–25	36–22	25–22	25–25	20–23	24–25		27–21	28–25	23–25
Tatran Prešov	25–30	27–25	30–25	29–29	18–26	29–35	27–33		34–30	25–31
Gorenje Velenje	34–37	31–24	27–26	24–20	27–31	29–31	23–18	30–19		26–27
Celje Pivovarna Laško	29–27	42–33	29–32	34–33	29–34	29–40	34–28	39–30	34–28

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Final four

The final four will be held at the Universal Sports Complex Victoria in Brest, Belarus on 7 and 9 April 2017.

Format

The first-placed team of the group faces the fourth-placed team, and the second-placed team will play against the third-placed team from the other group in the final four.

Semifinals

7 April 2017 17:30 CEST (UTC+02:00)	Vardar	36–28	PPD Zagreb	Universal Sports Complex Victoria, Brest Attendance: 2,700 Referees: Nabokao, Kulik (BLR)
	Čupić 8	(19–12)	Horvat 8
	2× 7×	Report	3× 5×

7 April 2017 20:00 CEST (UTC+02:00)	Telekom Veszprém	33–31	Meshkov Brest	Universal Sports Complex Victoria, Brest Attendance: 3,325 Referees: Mandak, Rudinsky (SVK)
	Ilić 7	(14–14)	Stojković 9
	3× 4×	Report	3× 4×
	FT: 29–29 Pen: 4-2

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Match for third place

9 April 2017 17:30 CEST (UTC+02:00)	Meshkov Brest	23–19	Zagreb	Universal Sports Complex Victoria, Brest Attendance: 3,375 Referees: Nachevski, Nikolov (MKD)
	Stojković 4	(14–10)	Horvat, Marković 5
	3× 1×	Report	3× 2×

Final

9 April 2017 20:00 CEST (UTC+02:00)	Vardar	26–21	Telekom Veszprém	Universal Sports Complex Victoria, Brest Attendance: 2,750 Referees: Gubica, Milošević (CRO)
	Cañellas, Dibirov 5	(11–11)	Ilić 5
	3× 4×	Report	3× 4×