The Champions League is the top competition for Europe's table tennis clubs, run by the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU). The strongest teams from the national leagues of Germany, France, Poland and elsewhere play each other from August to May, through a group stage and knockout rounds, and the title is decided at a Final Four weekend. There are separate men's and women's competitions, and they use different formats.
If you haven't read it yet, our guide to the professional leagues explains where these clubs play the rest of the time.
A short history
European club competition began with the European Club Cup of Champions in the 1960-61 season, won by CSM Cluj of Romania. The Champions League replaced it in 1998-99, when the first winners were Caen of France. The men's Final Four format arrived in 2024, and the women's followed in the 2025-26 season. The men's competition is currently called the HYLO ETTU Champions League Men, after its sponsor.
Who gets in
Clubs do not qualify just by winning their national league. ETTU keeps a European Club Competition Ranking, based on results in its club events, and uses it to seed every competition. Only clubs in the top 40 of that ranking can enter the men's Champions League, apart from wild cards, and no country can have more than five teams. The previous season's winner of the Europe Cup, the second competition, also gets a place.
How the men's competition works
In 2026-27, 24 men's clubs take part. The eight highest seeds go straight to the last 16. The other 16 played Stage 1 in Lille from 28 to 30 August 2026, in four groups of four, and the top two in each group joined the seeds. The teams that finished third and fourth dropped into the Europe Cup.
The last 16 and the quarter-finals are played over two legs, home and away. The last 16 starts in mid-November and finishes in December, and the quarter-finals run from January to March. The semi-finals and final are played at a Final Four on 8 and 9 May 2027.
The men's match format
Each side fields three players, and the match follows the New Swaythling Cup system: up to five singles, each the best of five games, with the first team to three wins taking the match. The order is A1 v B2, A2 v B1, A3 v B3, A1 v B1 and A2 v B2. A team can name up to five players and bring in a reserve for the last two singles.
One rule is different from normal table tennis. If an individual match reaches a fifth game, that game is played to six points rather than 11, with sudden death at 5-5. Each player serves once in turn and the players do not change ends. The normal scoring rules apply to the first four games.
Only one player from outside Europe can play in each team match.
In a two-legged tie, each leg earns match points rather than simply a win or loss. A 3-0 or 3-1 win is worth three points, a 3-2 win two, a 2-3 defeat one and a heavier defeat nothing. The team with more points over the two legs goes through.
If the points are level, the tie goes to a golden match, played 10 minutes after the second leg ends. It is a best-of-three-games contest, and whoever wins it goes through.
The women's competition
The women's Champions League is smaller and counts games rather than matches. In 2026-27 eight clubs played Stage 1 in Budaörs, Hungary, in two groups of four, and only the group winners went through. Stage 2 is a single league of eight teams, running from November to January. The top two go straight to the Final Four; third to sixth play one-off play-offs in March; seventh and eighth go out.
Each women's tie has up to five singles in the same order as the men's, but every individual match is exactly three games, and each game won is worth a point. In most rounds the first team to eight games wins, so results read like 8-7 or 8-2. In the Stage 2 league, all 15 games are played. Up to two players from outside Europe can play in each women's match. The women's Final Four is on 1 and 2 May 2027.
The winners
1. FC Saarbrücken from Germany have won the men's title four seasons running, from 2022-23 to 2025-26. Their latest came in May 2026, when they beat Alliance Nîmes/Montpellier 3-2 in front of their own fans in the Saarlandhalle. They start 2026-27 as the top seed.
Borussia Düsseldorf are the most successful men's club in Europe, with 12 European titles across the Cup of Champions and the Champions League. In the women's competition, KTS Tarnobrzeg of Poland won their fifth title in May 2026, beating Metz in the first women's Final Four, on home ground. The 2024-25 champions were ttc berlin eastside of Germany.
Below the Champions League
ETTU also runs the Europe Cup, which takes in the Champions League Stage 1 teams that miss out, and the Europe Trophy, a third competition with regional stages and a final. The 2025-26 Europe Cup was won by Priego of Spain for the men and Linz AG Froschberg of Austria for the women.
Watching and your next steps
Since December 2024 ETTU has streamed its club competitions on its own platform, ETTU TV, though matches can be blocked in countries where a local broadcaster holds the rights. Our guide to how team matches work compares this format with the ones used at the World Championships and the Olympics, and the season, month by month shows how the club rounds fit around the WTT events.