The HYLO ETTU Champions League Men is the premier international club competition for men’s table tennis in Europe, organized by the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU).
🏆 Current Champions & Recent History
1. FC Saarbrücken TT (Germany) is the absolute dominant force in European club table tennis. They recently made history by winning their fourth consecutive title, defeating the French newcomers Alliance Nîmes/Montpellier in a dramatic 3–2 final at the Saarlandhalle in Saarbrücken.
Recent Finals (List of Honour)
| Season | Champion | Runner-up |
| 2025/2026 | 🇩🇪 1. FC Saarbrücken TT | 🇫🇷 Alliance Nîmes/Montpellier |
| 2024/2025 | 🇩🇪 1. FC Saarbrücken TT | 🇩🇪 Borussia Düsseldorf |
| 2023/2024 | 🇩🇪 1. FC Saarbrücken TT | 🇩🇪 Borussia Düsseldorf |
| 2022/2023 | 🇩🇪 1. FC Saarbrücken TT | 🇩🇪 Borussia Düsseldorf |
| 2021/2022 | 🇩🇪 Borussia Düsseldorf | 🇩🇪 1. FC Saarbrücken TT |
🏓 Competition Format
The modern ETTU Champions League season runs in distinct phases:
- Stage 1: Lower-seeded European teams play in a round-robin group stage. The top teams advance to the main draw.
- Stage 2 (Round of 16 & Quarterfinals): The highest-seeded clubs (who get a bye through Stage 1) join the qualified teams in knockout rounds played over home-and-away legs.
- The Final 4: The competition culminates in a high-stakes, single-weekend tournament held at a host venue, where the semi-finals and final are played in a single-match knockout format.
👑 All-Time Most Successful Clubs
While Saarbrücken owns the current era, Borussia Düsseldorf remains the most successful club in the tournament’s history.
- Borussia Düsseldorf (Germany): 12 Titles
- Fakel Gazprom Orenburg (Russia): 5 Titles
- Royal Villette Charleroi (Belgium): 5 Titles
- 1. FC Saarbrücken TT (Germany): 4 Titles
✨ Notable Star Players
The league attracts the world’s absolute best talent. Key players featuring in the most recent deep tournament runs include:
- Saarbrücken: Formidable lineups featuring superstars like Fan Zhendong, Truls Möregårdh, Darko Jorgić, and Patrick Franziska.
- Alliance Nîmes/Montpellier: The meteoric French rise led by the sensational Lebrun brothers, Felix Lebrun and Alexis Lebrun.
- Borussia Düsseldorf: Anchored for years by German legend Timo Boll alongside Dang Qiu and Anton Källberg.
“Stage 1” (the opening group phase)
“Stage 1” (the opening group phase), whereas my previous answer was talking about the final outcome.
Here is how the tables you shared fit into the bigger picture of what we discussed:
🔍 A closer look at the following screenshots
The tables you provided are from Stage 1 of the ETTU Champions League. In this stage, lower-ranked European clubs (and a few ambitious newcomers) compete in a round-robin group format to earn a spot in the main draw.
Looking at your images, you can actually see the origin story of the finalists we talked about earlier:
- Group B (Image 3): Notice who finished #1 with a perfect 3–0 record? Alliance Nîmes/Montpellier Tt. This group phase was the very beginning of their miraculous run that ultimately took them all the way to the Champions League Final.
- Group A (Image 4): Post SV Mühlhausen dominated this group 3–0. They advanced from here all the way to the Quarter-finals before being eliminated by Borussia Düsseldorf.
⚔️ Why are giants like Saarbrücken and Düsseldorf missing?
If you look at these group standings, you won’t see legendary clubs like 1. FC Saarbrücken TT or Borussia Düsseldorf.
That is because the ETTU uses a seeding system:
- The Elite Teams: The highest-ranked clubs in Europe get a “bye” directly into Stage 2 (the Round of 16 / Knockout phase). They don’t have to play in these opening groups.
- The Qualifiers: Teams like Alliance Nîmes/Montpellier had to fight their way through these Stage 1 groups first. Once they won their groups, they advanced to Stage 2 to face the resting giants.
