Germany's Magdeburg will be defending the title they have won for the past two years, beating FC Barcelona 33-28 in the final in Jeddah and 41-39 in in extra time in last year's thriller.

For the first time, there are four European teams in the competition making this sixteenth edition the most competitive and challenging yet. Barcelona are by far the most decorated club with five titles, followed by the now-defunct Ciudad Real with two, and two teams that will be in Saudi Arabia, namely Magdeburg and Füchse Berlin (invited as the European League champions).

Besides the Catalan team (invited as third of the last EHF Champions), the two German teams, and the Polish team Kielce (runner-up of the EHF Champions League), the other participants are Al Ahly from Egypt (winners of the Asian Super Cup), Al-Najma from Qatar (winners of the Asian Champions), University of Queensland from Australia (winners of the Oceanic Champions), San Francisco from the USA (winners of the North American and Caribbean Championships), San Fernando from Argentina (winners of the South and Central America Champions), Kuwait SC (winners of the Arab Champions), Khaleej and Al-Noor (winners and runners-up of the Saudi Arabian League).

The competition kicked off on Tuesday with Al Ahly beating Al Noor (38-20) in Group A, which also includes Barcelona; Kuwait beating San Fernando (41-29), with Füchse Berlin making their debut on Wednesday; reigning champions SC Magdeburg beating Khaleej (29-20) in a group shared with the University of Queensland; and Kielce beating surprise package Al-Najma 27-26 thanks to a last-minute goal from Szymon Sicko (San Francisco will start on Wednesday).

Each team will play two matches between Tuesday and Thursday before the group winners meet in the semi-finals on Saturday (Group A vs. Group B and Group C vs. Group D), and the final and the third-place games on Sunday. The title match is scheduled to start at 20:15 local time (GMT+3).