By winning the IIHF Continental Cup, Neman Grodno have earned a spot in next year's Champions Hockey League. Nine other C-Licenses will also go to teams from Norway, Slovakia, Denmark, Great Britain and France. 

Press Release

The number of teams competing in the Champions Hockey League in 2015–16 has been expanded to 48 teams and, as such, the number of C-Licenses has been increased to 10.

The C-Licenses, also called Wild Cards, are awarded by the CHL to top teams from the five “challenge leagues”, which are ranked below the six founding leagues.
 
As was the case in 2014–15, C-Licenses will go to the top leagues of Norway, Slovakia, Denmark, Great Britain and France. Additionally, one C-License will be extended to Belarus and IIHF Continental Cup champions Neman Grodno.

The addition of Belarusian Neman Grodno, who went undefeated through the 2015 IIHF Continental Cup Super Final, is the Champions Hockey League’s first notable venture to Eastern Europe. 

The nine remaining C-Licenses will be divided between the five remaining leagues, with Norway, Slovakia, Denmark and Great Britain all receiving two, based on their finish in this year's Champions Hockey League. France will get one. 

The playoff champions of four of the leagues (NOR, SVK, DEN, FRA) will receive C-Licenses. For leagues with two licenses, the regular-season winners will also be invited. In the case of Great Britain and the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), where the national champion is determined by the regular season (not by playoffs), the top two teams in the regular season standings will obtain C-Licenses. 

The upcoming season’s participation structure was presented on Wednesday to the CHL’s 26 founding clubs at a club-owners’ meeting in Berlin, Germany. 

The 10 C-License clubs will join the 12 B-License (in principle the national champions and regular season winners of the six founding leagues) and 26 A-License (founding clubs) clubs for a total of 48 teams, which will be divided into 16 groups of three. 

The Group Stage of the 2015–16 season will begin on 20 August and finish on 6 September. Each team will play four games – one home and one away against the other two teams in its group. The first- and second-placed teams in each group will then advance to the Playoff Stage.

With 32 teams in the playoffs, five rounds will be required to determine a champion. The first four rounds will all be two-game, home-and-away, total-goal series, similar to this season. The playoffs will begin on 22 September and finish with a one-game final on 9 February. 

It was also announced at the club-owners’ meeting that the Champions Hockey League draw for the 2015–16 Group Stage will take place on 13 May 2015 in Prague, Czech Republic.