2017–18 SEHA League

The 2017–18 SEHA League season was the seventh season of the SEHA (South East Handball Association) League and fourth under the sponsorship of the Russian oil and gas company Gazprom. Ten teams from six countries (Belarus, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia) participated in this year's competition.^[4]

2017–18 SEHA League season
League	SEHA League
Sport	Handball
Duration	30 August 2017 – 17 March 2018
Number of games	90 (regular season) 94 (including F4 tournament)
Number of teams	10  Belarus (1 team)  Croatia (2 teams) Macedonia (2 teams)  Serbia (2 teams)  Slovakia (1 team)  Slovenia (2 teams)
Regular season
Season champions	Vardar
Season MVP	Luka Cindrić[1]
Top scorer	Halil Jaganjac (100 goals) [2]
Final Four
Finals champions	Vardar[3]
Runners-up	PPD Zagreb
Finals MVP	Luka Cindrić

Vardar are the defending champions. The SEHA League consists of two phases – the first one has 18 rounds in which all teams play one home and one away games against each other. Afterwards, the four best ranked clubs played on the Final Four tournament.

The campaign began on 30 August 2017 with three matches from the first round. The regular season ended on 17 March 2018.

The final four tournament was held at the Jane Sandanski Arena in Skopje, Macedonia from 13th to 15 April 2018.

Team information

Venues and locations

Country	Team	City	Venue (Capacity)
Belarus	Meshkov Brest	Brest	Universal Sports Complex Victoria (3,740)
Croatia	PPD Zagreb	Zagreb	Arena Zagreb (15,200) Sutinska Vrela Hall (2,000)
	Nexe	Našice	Sportska dvorana (2,500)
Macedonia	Vardar	Skopje	Jane Sandanski Arena (6,000)
	Metalurg	Skopje	Boris Trajkovski Sports Center (7,000), Avtokomanda (2,000)
Serbia	Dinamo	Pančevo	Strelište Sports Hall (1,100)
	Vojvodina	Novi Sad	SPENS (11,000), SC Slana Bara (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)

PPD Zagreb Nexe Vardar Metalurg Dinamo Vojvodina Gorenje Velenje Celje Pivovarna Lasko Location of teams in 2017-18 SEHA League (Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia)

Meshkov Brest Location of teams in 2017-18 SEHA League (Belarus) Tatran Prešov Location of teams in 20167-18 SEHA League (Slovakia)

Personnel and kits

Following is the list of clubs competing in 2017–18 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	Joma	BelGazpromBank
PPD Zagreb	Zlatko Saračević	Igor Vori	Hummel	Prvo Plinarsko Društvo
Nexe	Hrvoje Horvat	Marko Mrđenović	Jako	Nexe
Vardar	Raúl González	Stojanče Stoilov	Hummel	Bet City
Metalurg	Lino Červar	Filip Kuzmanovski	Kempa	Duferco Makstil
Dinamo	Ivan Petković	Branko Radanović	unit-sport	Grad Pančevo
Vojvodina	Kasim Kamenica	Vukašin Stojanović	NAAI	Vinarija Zvonko Bogdan
Tatran Prešov	Slavko Goluža	Radovan Pekár	ATAK Sportswear	Phoenix
Gorenje Velenje	Željko Babić	Niko Medved	Kempa	Gorenje
Celje Pivovarna Laško	Branko Tamše	David Razgor	Nike	Laško

Coaching changes

Round	Club	Outgoing coach	Date of change	Incoming coach
3rd	Vojvodina	Boško Rudić	18 September 2017[5]	Dragan Kukić
7th	PPD Zagreb	Kasim Kamenica	27 November 2017[6]	Zlatko Saračević
12th	Vojvodina	Dragan Kukić	6 January 2018	Kasim Kamenica
18th	Vojvodina	Kasim Kamenica	28 March 2018[7]	Boris Rojević

Regular season

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Vardar	18	17	1	0	565	445	+120	52	Final four
2	PPD Zagreb	18	12	2	4	514	463	+51	38
3	Celje Pivovarna Laško	18	11	2	5	540	489	+51	35
4	Meshkov Brest	18	10	1	7	532	499	+33	31
5	Gorenje Velenje	18	9	3	6	523	482	+41	30
6	Tatran Prešov	18	6	4	8	494	487	+7	22
7	Metalurg	18	7	1	10	487	521	−34	22
8	Nexe	18	2	6	10	455	510	−55	12
9	Dinamo	18	2	3	13	456	554	−98	9
10	Vojvodina	18	2	1	15	461	567	−106	7

Source: SEHA Standings

Results

Home \ Away	MES	ZAG	NEX	VAR	MET	DIN	VOJ	TAT	GOR	CEL
Meshkov Brest		24–23	35–23	25–25	35–30	29–26	32–27	32–26	32–33	30–34
PPD Zagreb	27–24		27–19	24–25	30–28	40–29	35–25	32–26	26–25	25–25
Nexe	19–29	29–30		21–30	31–31	27–19	33–28	23–27	24–24	23–35
Vardar	31–23	30–23	29–25		31–24	42–32	37–22	32–28	32–19	35–27
Metalurg	37–33	26–32	29–22	23–32		33–25	30–26	31–30	24–29	28–26
Dinamo	26–33	28–28	25–25	23–27	20–25		22–20	26–26	27–29	26–37
Vojvodina	27–36	21–29	29–28	32–36	21–19	24–29		23–23	27–39	26–31
Tatran Prešov	24–23	33–28	26–26	22–30	27–19	36–24	35–26		27–27	25–26
Gorenje Velenje	37–28	23–25	30–30	24–30	37–25	34–24	37–20	27–25		22–25
Celje Pivovarna Laško	24–29	23–30	27–27	28–31	34–25	39–25	36–27	32–28	31–27

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

Final Four

The SEHA - Gazprom League Executive Committee has made the decision for the final four tournament to be held at the Jane Sandanski Arena in Skopje, Macedonia from 13th to 15 April.^[8]

Format

The first-placed team of the standings faced the fourth-placed team, and the second-placed team played against the third-placed team from the standings in the Final Four.

Semifinals

13 April 2018 17:45 CEST (UTC+02:00)	Vardar	33–24	Meshkov Brest	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 5,380 Referees: Gubica, Milošević (CRO)
	Cindrić 6	(17–14)	Baranau 9
	3× 1×	Report	3× 5×

13 April 2018 20:15 CEST (UTC+02:00)	PPD Zagreb	29–28	Celje Pivovarna Laško	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 2,270 Referees: Nikolov, Nachevski (MKD)
	Pavlović 7	(14–11)	Mačkovšek 6
	3× 2×	Report	4× 3×

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Match for third place

15 April 2018 17:45 CEST (UTC+02:00)	Meshkov Brest	28–31	Celje Pivovarna Laško	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 3,000 Referees: Nikolić Stojković (SRB)
	Horák, Shumak 5	(14–15)	Mlakar 7
	4×	Report	4× 4× 1×

Final

15 April 2018 20:15 CEST (UTC+02:00)	Vardar	26–24	PPD Zagreb	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 6,000 Referees: Brynovski, Čanda (SVK)
	Cindrić, Krištopāns 5	(14–13)	Horvat 8
	2× 1×	Report	2× 2× 1×

Top goalscorers

As of 15 April 2018

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Halil Jaganjac	Metalurg	100
2	Bruno Butorac	Tatran Prešov	95
3	Zlatko Horvat	PPD Zagreb	92