The Danish Men's Handball cup () is the nationwide cup tournament for men's handball teams in Denmark. It’s also known as Santander Cup for sponsorship reasons. The competition has been played annually since 1964.
Tournament structure The initial fase of the tournament is split in two. They are managed by the three regional federations, Jydsk Håndbold Forbund (JHF) in Jutland, and Håndboldregion Øst (HRØ) in Sealand together with Fyns Håndbold Forbund (FHF) in fyn. The western half of the initial tournament lasts 7 rounds, while the eastern half lasts 6 round. After the initial fase the DHF taking over the tournament at the round of 16. At the round of 16 and onwards, there are no longer geographical considerations, when drawing the matches. The tournament ultimately results in a final four event scheduled between Christmas and New Year. The winner of the tournament qualify for the annual Super Cup held during the summer where they meet the season's league winner. If the same team wins both the league and the cup, the losing cup finalist will participate as the second team in the Super Cup. The winner also qualifies for the EHF European League.
Continental Qualification
The winner of the tournament qualifies for the continental tournament EHF European League. If the team is already qualified for the tournament or the EHF Champions League, the loser of the final will qualify instead. If they are also qualified, the qualification spot will go the whichever of the two losing semifinalists, who finished the highest in the league table.
History The Cup tournament was introduced for the first time in 1964, together with the Danish Women's Handball Cup.
From 2001 to 2014 all finals where played in Aarhus, with the exception of 2011 where it took plays in Aalborg. Since 2010 the semifinals and finals have been played at one big event, where the semifinals are played on a saturday, while the final is played the day after, on sunday.
In 2010-11 DHF introduced a final four event. From the 2015-16 season onwards, third-place matches were introduced.
Past winners
Finals Here is the list of Cup finals since 1964. YearWinnerResultsRunner-up1964IF Ajax (1)21-19Aarhus KFUM1965IK Skovbakken (1)13-11Helsingør IF1966Aarhus KFUM (1)13-11Tarup-Paarup IF1967AGF (1)19-14IF Stadion1968IK Skovbakken (2)25-23IF Stadion1969IF Stadion (1)25-20Aarhus KFUM1970HK KVIK Esbjerg (1)16-15IK Skovbakken1971Fredericia KFUM (1)15-13IF Stadion1972Fredericia KFUM (2)25-20Helsingør IF1973Fredericia KFUM (3)18-16IF Stadion1974Fredericia KFUM (4)30-17FIF1975IK Skovbakken (3)16-15Holte IF1976Fredericia KFUM (5)27-16Aarhus KFUM1977Fredericia KFUM (6)30-18Aalborg HK1978AB (1)26-21Fredericia KFUM1979Helsingør IF (1)20-19IK Skovbakken1980Aarhus KFUM (2)21-18Helsingør IF1981Fredericia KFUM (7)27-18Helsingør IF1982Helsingør IF (2)31-25Gladsaxe HG1983Gladsaxe HG (1)19-18IF Ajax1984HIK (1)27-18Ribe HK1985Helsingør IF (3)39-38(agg.)Gladsaxe HG1986Holte IF (1)43-32(agg.)Holbæk HK1987Helsingør IF (4)25-22Kolding IF1988Virum-Sorgenfri HK (1)18-16Gladsaxe HG1989Kolding IF (1)29-18Gladsaxe HG1990GOG (1)19-14Gladsaxe HG1991GOG (2)25-19Kolding IF1992GOG (3)22-19Vejlby-Risskov IK1993Kolding IF (2)26-21GOG1994HK Roar (1)26-19Skjern Håndbold1995GOG (4)33-20Vrold-Skanderborg HK1996GOG (5)30-29Kolding IF1997GOG (6)36-22Otterup HK1998Kolding IF (3)27-25Skjern Håndbold1999Skjern Håndbold (1)24-20FIF2000Viborg HK (1)28-23KIF Kolding2001KIF Kolding (4)32-26GOG2002GOG (7)32-27Viborg HK2003GOG (8)33-30Skjern Håndbold2004KIF Kolding (5)41-33Skjern Håndbold2005GOG Svendborg TGI (9)36-26Bjerringbro-Silkeborg2006KIF Kolding (6)37-33Viborg HK2007KIF Kolding (7)28-23GOG Svendborg TGI2008Team Tvis Holstebro (1)32-23GOG Svendborg TGI2009FCK Håndbold (1)31-30Bjerringbro-Silkeborg2010AG København (1)26-20Århus Håndbold2011AG København (2)32-26Aalborg Håndbold2012Århus Håndbold (1)27-26Skjern Håndbold2013KIF Kolding København (8)28-24Bjerringbro-Silkeborg2014Skjern Håndbold (2) 24-20Team Tvis Holstebro2015HC Midtjylland (1) 30-26GOG2016Skjern Håndbold (3)27-20Bjerringbro-Silkeborg2017TTH Holstebro (2)26-21GOG2018Aalborg Håndbold (1)28-27Skanderborg Håndbold2019GOG (10)30-28TTH Holstebro2020Mors-Thy Håndbold (1)32-31Aalborg Håndbold2021Aalborg Håndbold (2)30-27GOG Håndbold2022GOG Håndbold (11)34-29Skjern Håndbold2023GOG Håndbold (12)32-25Aalborg Håndbold2024Aalborg Håndbold (3)34-29Bjerringbro-Silkeborg2025Aalborg Håndbold (4)34-24TMS Ringsted
Most valuable players Since 1993, DHF has named an MVP (Danish: pokalfighter) following the cup final. SeasonPlayerClub1993 Kim G. JakobsenKolding IF1994 Jan KirkegaardHK Roar1995 René BoerithsGOG Gudme1996 Bilal SumanKolding IF1997 Joachim BoldsenGOG Gudme1998 Kristian AsmussenKolding IF1999 Søren GottfredsenSkjern Håndbold2000 Michael V. KnudsenViborg HK2001 Fredrik OhlanderKIF Kolding2002 Frank BrøndumViborg HK2003 Michael V. KnudsenSkjern Håndbold2004 Bo SpellerbergKIF Kolding2005 Kasper S. PovlsgaardBjerringbro-Silkeborg2006 Lasse BoesenKIF Kolding2007 Kasper SøndergaardKIF Kolding2008 Heino Holm KnudsenTeam Tvis Holstebro2009 Erlend MamelundFCK Håndbold2010 Jan NielsenÅrhus Håndbold2011 Mikkel HansenAG København2012 Henrik MøllgaardSkjern Håndbold2013 Bo SpellerbergKIF Kolding København2014 Lasse MikkelsenSkjern Håndbold2015 Tim WinklerHC Midtjylland2016 Tibor IvaniševićSkjern Håndbold2017 Torbjørn BergerudTTH Holstebro2018 Mikael AggeforsAalborg Håndbold2019 Anders ZachariassenGOG Håndbold2020 Mads Hoxer HangaardMors-Thy Håndbold2021 Emil MadsenGOG Håndbold2022 Lukas JørgensenGOG Håndbold2023 Tobias ThulinGOG Håndbold2024 Thomas ArnoldsenAalborg Håndbold2025 Niklas LandinAalborg Håndbold
External links The Danish Handball Federation About the tournament
References