The 2010–11 LEN Women's Champions' Cup was the 24th edition of the highest-level competition in women's European club water polo. It involved the champions and other top teams from European national leagues and ran from December 2010 to April 2011. The Final Four (semifinals, final, and third place game) took place in Sabadell, Spain.
Final Four host CN Sabadell became the first Spanish team to win the competition beating Orizzonte Catania in the final.Sabadell becomes the European champion. Marca Olympiacos CFP and Kinef Kirishi also reached the final Four, with Olympiacos ranking third, while defending champion Vouliagmeni OC was defeated by Orizzonte in the quarter-finals.
Federation team allocation Each national federation can enter up to two teams into the Women's Champions' Cup. Seeded Federations are the federations who placed a team in the final Four of the previous' year's competition. In 2009/10, these countries were: Greece (2), Italy, and Russia All other federations are unseeded
Federations do not have to enter their top two teams into the Champions' Cup. If they do not think their clubs can be competitive, they can enter teams into the second-tier LEN Cup.
Format and Changes The original format for the Champions' Cup was to have four phases: A qualification round of 4 groups of any size played as a Round-robin tournament at the site of a host team A preliminary round of 4 groups of 4 played as a Round-robin tournament at the site of a host team A quarterfinal round played as a Two-legged tie The Final Four played as a Knockout tournament at a pre-selected site
However, there were only 13 entries, so the qualification round was cancelled, and the preliminary round will be played with 3 groups of 3 and 1 group of 4.
Distribution Teams entering in this round Teams advancing from previous round Preliminary Round 1 or 2 teams from each federation Knockout Phase(8 teams) 4 tournament winners from the preliminary round 4 tournament runner-up from the preliminary round
Teams There were 13 entries from 7 countries. Each of the draw pots were organised according to the previous year's results: Bold indicates countries that entered teams Pot 1 Final Four qualifiers Greece (2), Italy, Russia Pot 2 Losing quarterfinalists Italy, Russia, Spain (2) Pot 3 3rd placed in preliminary round Germany, Hungary, Netherlands (2) Pot 4 4th placed in preliminary round France, Great Britain (2), Switzerland
Note: The Netherlands only entered one team, so the two available places in Pot 3 were taken by a second German team and a French team elevated from Pot 4.
Draw Group A Group B Group C Group D Pot 1 Orizzonte Catania Kinef Kirishi Olympiacos CFP Vouliagmeni OC Pot 2 CN Sabadell CE Mediterrani Shturm Ruza Fiorentina WP Pot 3 Blau-Weiss Bochum Bayer Uerdingen Olympic Nice Polar Bears Ede Pot 4 ASPTT Nancy
Round and Draw Dates Tournament Phase Draw Date Tournament Preliminary Round 6 August 2010 Ends 5 December 2010 Knockout Phase Draw Date 1st Leg 2nd Leg Quarterfinals 12–13 February 2011 19–20 March 2011 Final Four Draw Date Round Date Semifinals 22 April 2011 Final 23 April 2011
Tournament Phase First qualifying round
Key to colours in group tablesProgress to the Quarterfinal Round
Group A TeamPLWDLFAPts 1. Sabadell 2 2 0 0 26 20 6 2. Orizzonte Catania (host) 2 1 0 1 30 25 3 3. Blau-Weiss Bochum 2 0 0 2 18 29 0
14 January 2011Sabadell12–7Blau-Weiss Bochum15 January 2011Sabadell14–13Orizzonte Catania16 January 2011Orizzonte Catania17–11Blau-Weiss Bochum
Group B TeamPLWDLFAPts 1. Kinef Kirishi (host) 2 2 0 0 42 16 6 2. Bayer Uerdingen 2 1 0 1 30 33 0 3. Mediterrani 2 0 0 2 17 40 0
14 January 2011Bayer Uerdingen20–11Mediterrani15 January 2011Kinef Kirishi22–10Bayer Uerdingen16 January 2011Kinef Kirishi20–6Mediterrani
Group C TeamPLWDLFAPts 1. Olympiacos 2 2 0 0 25 15 6 2. Shturm Ruza 2 1 0 1 26 19 3 3. Olympic Nice (host) 2 0 0 2 11 28 0
14 January 2011Olympiacos13–4Olympic Nice15 January 2011Olympiacos12–11Shturm Ruza16 January 2011Shturm Ruza15–7Olympic Nice
Group D TeamPLWDLFAPts 1. Vouliagmeni 3 3 0 0 43 17 9 2. Polar Bears Ede 3 2 0 1 31 30 6 3. Fiorentina (host) 3 1 0 2 24 28 3 4. Nancy 3 0 0 3 19 42 0
14 January 2011Vouliagmeni15–6Polar Bears EdeFiorentina11–6Nancy15 January 2011Vouliagmeni17–6NancyPolar Bears Ede11–8Fiorentina16 January 2011Vouliagmeni11–5FiorentinaPolar Bears Ede14–7Nancy
Quarter-finals Team #1Agg.Team #2L #1 L #2Sabadell 22–19 Shturm Ruza 16–8 6–11 Polar Bears Ede 18–26 Kinef Kirishi 9–119–15Vouliagmeni 21–23 Orizzonte Catania 13–118–12Bayer Uerdingen 14–35 Olympiacos 8–186–17
Final four Piscina Can Llong, Sabadell
2011 LEN Women's Champions' Cup Champions CN Sabadell First title
References