Season 2021/2022 starts tomorrow
September 3, 2021
This weekend with 11 games starts new season of Baltic Handball League. As historically it was meant to be – league for three Baltic states, after few years with participants from other countries (exampl.Finland and Belarus), this is the second season when all teams are only from Baltics. This season in BHL are going to play 13 teams from three countries – five Estonian teams, five Lithuanian teams and three Latvian teams. This season there are two new teams joined Baltic Handball League – HC Vilnius from Lithuania and Raasiku/Mistra from Estonia.
| LITHUANIA | ESTONIA | LATVIA |
| Varsa–Stronglasa (Alytus) | SK Tapa (Tapa) | ZRHK Tenax (Dobele) |
| Granitas–Karys (Kaunas) | Viljandi HC (Viljandi) | HK Ogre (Ogre) |
| VHC Šviesa (Vilnius) | Rassiku Mistra (Rassiku) | SK Latgols (Ludza) |
| HC Dragunas (Klaipeda) | HC Kehra (Kehra) | |
| HC Vilnius (Vilnius) | Põlva Serviti (Polva) |
Baltic Handball League is a project founded by three Baltic state federations, and it is not a surprise that participation in this tournament is important for all three countries and their handball. It is not only a champions title teams are fighting for, but also a good way to show and advertise handball.
Pirje Orasson, Estonian Handball Federation:
“We are excited about this upcoming season. We are sure this is going to be interesting season with lots of good handball. We just hope that we are not going to have postpone, cancel or any other way interrupt this season. This year we have 5 teams from Estonia and I know that during summer they did a great preparation work. Good luck to all participants!”
Līga Bīriņa, Latvian Handball Federation:
“Dear handball friends!
First of all I would like to say it’s a big honour to be a part of Baltic handball family. It’s my pleasure to say opening words for the new season!
I wish to all teams stay strong, healthy and enjoy the game every minute.
Thank you, players, coaches, referees, staff for a great job! Keep going, we should work together to build up our handball level.”
Miglius Astrauskas, Lithuanian Handball Federation:
“We welcome upcoming season of BHL with high expectations and we hope, that this season will be full-pledged. Because Latvian teams withdrawed from championship last season. In this season Lithuania has 5 teams in BHL and we have changed the system of domestic competitions because of this. We expect that BHL will help for handball to become better known sport throughout the region. Lithuanian teams in last season got experience how to manage the pandemic situation during competitions. We hope that spectators missed handball a lot and they will fullfill arenas more than before pandemics.”
Urmo SITSI, Baltic Handball League manager:
“We are happy that we could finish last season normally, with champions and standing. Now we are ready for new season, new challenges, but hopefully it can be played without any interruption from a side of pandemics. In this season we are starting with 13 teams, it is sad that we had to eliminate Latvian team. I do believe it will be a tough fight in this season and we are going to see many surprises. We can see that we have few favorite teams on paper, but also many teams are changing their player lists and adding new foreign players, so we don’t know how it will turn out at the end. It will be interesting and competitive tournament and fight for first eight places and ticket to next seasons. But most interesting part, as usually, is going to be end of season and finals. We are working together to develop handball in Baltic states and in this season we have many teams who can fight for finals. The teams are more equal, more professional and more motivated. I hope this season are going to be fun also for spectators and it will be full of interesting games. Good luck and see you on handball court.”
Last season Champions – HC Dragunas from Klaipeda
HC Dragunas coach Gintaras Cibulskis in short interview, sad that
“After last season their player list is changed a lot, they have lost four players (few went to play handball in other countries) and all of them were important players for HC Dragunas. Now we have two new players from Ukraine and I hope we are going to be alright in this season. About other teams, I see that there is going to be good team from Polva (Estionia), they have very good players, we played two friendly games with them – they are good. This is going to be interesting season with many good teams and games. Newcomers from Estonia are a mystery for me. On Sunday we have game with Rassiku/Mistra and I know nothing about them. I hope on Saturday we can see their game with Dobele.”
Game schedule
4th of September
| 14:00 | Tapa | SK Tapa | Viljandi HC |
| 15:00 | Vilnius | VHC Šviesa | HC Kehra |
| 15:00 | Vilnius | HC Vilnius | Põlva Serviti |
| 17:00 | Raasiku | Rassiku/Mistra | ZRHK Tenax Dobele |
| 17:00 | Kaunas | Granitas – Karys | HK Ogre |
| 18:00 | Alytas | Varsa – Stronglasa | SK Latgols |
5th of September
| 14:00 | Raasiku | Rassiku/Mistra | HC Dragunas Klaipeda |
| 14:00 | Kaunas | Granitas – Karus | SK Latgols |
| 14:00 | Vilnius | VHC Šviesa | Põlva Serviti |
| 14:30 | Alytus | Varsa – Stronglasa | HK Ogre |
| 15:00 | Vilnius | HC Vilnius | HC Kehra |