1996–97 CERH European League

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.

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	—

Source: [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	—

Source: [2]

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

• CERH website