The 1996–97 CERH European League was the 32nd edition of the CERH European League organized by CERH. Its Final Four was held in Barcelona, Spain.

Format changes

As a result of the expansion of the competition, two preliminary rounds were played before the group stage, composed by eight teams divided into two groups of four each one, thus qualifying the two first qualified teams to the Final Four.

Preliminary round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Wimmis	11–8	Agor Dordrecht	6–3	5–5
Reus Deportiu	4–5	Salerno	4–2	0–3
Wolfurt	3–26	Vic	1–9	2–17
Saint-Omer	8–12	La Vendéenne	5–4	3–8
Herne Bay	7–11	Quévert	4–7	3–4

First round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Cronenberg	6–23	Porto	3–10	3–13
Barcelona	24–2	Thunerstern	14–1	10–1
Genève	2–10	Novara	1–1	1–9
La Vendéenne	w.o.	Benfica	w.o.	w.o.
Quévert	4–26	Igualada	1–11	3–15
Amatori Vercelli	19–1	Wimmis	12–0	7–1
Salerno	6–5	Barcelos	4–3	2–2
Liceo	7–4	Vic	6–3	1–1

Group stage

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a home-and-away round-robin format.

The two first qualified teams advanced to the Final Four.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		IGU	POR	NOV	SAL
1	Igualada	6	4	0	2	21	9	+12	8	Advance to Final Four		—	4–3	4–1	7–0
2	Porto	6	4	0	2	24	21	+3	8			2–1	—	5–4	4–2
3	Novara	6	3	1	2	23	17	+6	7			3–0	7–5	—	7–2
4	Salerno	6	0	1	5	8	29	−21	1			0–5	3–5	1–1	—

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LIC	BAR	VER	VEN
1	Liceo	6	4	1	1	43	19	+24	9	Advance to Final Four		—	4–1	4–0	12–1
2	Barcelona	6	3	2	1	46	16	+30	8			5–5	—	4–3	25–2
3	Amatori Vercelli	6	3	1	2	32	19	+13	7			10–4	1–1	—	10–3
4	La Vendéenne	6	0	0	6	12	79	−67	0			2–14	1–10	3–8	—

Final four

The Final Four was played in the Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona, Spain.

Barcelona achieved their eleventh title.

Bracket

	Semifinals				Final
	Barcelona	3
	Igualada	2
					Barcelona	9
					Liceo	2
	Liceo	6
	Porto	8
					Third place
					Igualada ( p)	3
					Porto	3

References

External links

• CERH website