European Football League

European Football League

Current season	EFL 2018
sport	American football
abbreviation	EFL
Association	European Federation of American Football
League foundation	1986
Title holder	Potsdam Royals

The European Football League ( EFL ) is a European Cup sports competition for European American football club teams. The EFL final is the EFL Bowl , which has been held annually since 2014.

EFL

Under the umbrella of the European Federation of American Football (EFAF), comparable to the UEFA Champions League in football, until 2013 the best European football teams competed against each other in an annual competition and played for the European Cup ( Eurobowl ). However, other teams or teams from the "small" football nations had the opportunity to gain international experience and qualify for the EFL in the EFAF Cup , another EFAF competition.

In 2014 the Big6 European Football League was founded, which replaced the EFL as the highest European competition. The EFL, which continued to exist, moved into the second tier and replaced the EFAF Cup. Depending on the strength of the national member associations, the EFAF determines whether and which teams from the nations are allowed to participate in the competition. Only national champions or runners-up and teams with international successes are admitted.

Differentiation from NFL Europe

The NFL Europe was until June 2007 the European "offshoot" of the National Football League NFL , whose game operations were completely financed by the NFL. Most recently it consisted of six teams, five of which (Rhein Fire, Frankfurt Galaxy, Berlin Thunder, Cologne Centurions and Hamburg Sea Devils) came from Germany. The sixth team were the Amsterdam Admirals from the Netherlands.

Game mode

Until 2013, three teams in four divisions each played the division winners in the group stage. Each team plays once against each team in the division. The division winners played in the quarter-finals against the four semi-finalists of the previous year for a place in the semi-finals . The winners of the semi-finals then reached the Eurobowl. If necessary, qualifying matches of teams not seeded took place before the group stage.

Since 2014, three teams in two groups have been playing the group winners in the group stage. The two group winners qualify for the EFL Bowl.

player

By March 31 of the corresponding year, the participating clubs must submit a list (roster) of a maximum of 60 players to the EFAF who may be used in the tournament. Late registrations are not possible.

For each EFL game day, the teams register a roster with up to 45 eligible players. Of these, a maximum of three players may be so-called "Americans" who may be used at the same time. According to the EFAF, “Americans” are players with US , Canadian , Mexican or Japanese citizenship, ie players from countries with developed football structures.

List of EFL bowls

No.	date	winner	loser	Result	venue	spectator	MVP (team)
I.	19th July 2014	Kiel Baltic Hurricanes	Badalona Dracs	40: 00	Kiel	2,104	Garrett Andrews (KBH)
II	June 27, 2015	Kiel Baltic Hurricanes	Allgäu Comets	49:28	Kiel	1,725
III	June 11, 2016	Frankfurt Universe	Amsterdam Crusaders	35:21	Frankfurt am Main	6,056	Jessie Lewis (FU)
IV	June 10, 2017	Thonon Black Panthers	Rhinos Milano	29:20	Thonon-les-Bains	2,500	Stephen Yepmo (TBP)
V	0June 9, 2018	Potsdam Royals	Seamen Milano	43:42	Sesto San Giovanni	2,500

Until 2013, the final of the EFL was the Eurobowl, which has been held annually since 1986, but has been continued as the final of the Big6 European Football League since then. EFL record champions are the Vienna Vikings from Austria with five Euro bowl victories (2004–2007 and 2013) .

Other champions: see Eurobowl

Ranking of the European Football League participants (since 2014)

rank	team	title	final	Participation
1.	Kiel Baltic Hurricanes	2	2	3
2.	Thonon Black Panthers	1	1	3
3.	Frankfurt Universe	1	1	1
	Potsdam Royals	1	1	1
5.	Badalona Dracs	0	1	4th
6th	Amsterdam Crusaders	0	1	2
7th	Allgäu Comets	0	1	1
	Rhinos Milano	0	1	1
	Seamen Milano	0	1	1
10.	Alphen Eagles	0	0	2
11.	Cologne Falcons	0	0	1
	Gladiators of both Basel	0	0	1
	Berlin eagle	0	0	1
	Brussel Tigers	0	0	1
	Calanda Broncos	0	0	1
	Dusseldorf panther	0	0	1
	Hamburg huskies	0	0	1
	Marburg Mercenaries	0	0	1
	Nice dauphins	0	0	1
	Prague Black Panthers	0	0	1

As of June 2018

Participant lists

A list of all tournaments and the participating teams: see list of all European Football League participants

Web links

Commons : European Football League  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of the European Football League

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hurricanes win EFL Bowl
2. ↑ EFL Bowl Champions!
3. ↑ Samsung Frankfurt Universe is EFL Champion ( Memento of the original from December 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Thonon Black Panthers win the EFL Bowl. In: eurobowl.info. June 10, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2017 . 
5. ↑ France's Thonon Black Panthers win European Football League title beating Milano Rhinos from Italy
6. ^ EFL Bowl: Dramatic End with a points festival. In: eurobowl.info. June 11, 2018, accessed June 13, 2018 .