European Football League 2016

The European Football League 2016 was the 30th season of the European Football League . It began on April 9, 2016 with the group games and ended on June 11, 2016 with the EFL Bowl III.

Attendees

Defending champion Kiel Baltic Hurricanes led the field of participants in the EFL 2016 . Like Kiel, the Badalona Dracs were represented as the Spanish representative for the third time in a row. Then there were the Amsterdam Crusaders , who were also in the field last year. The Thonon Black Panthers from France, who took part in the IFAF Europe Champions League in the past two seasons , were new . Also new to the competition were the Hamburg Huskies and GFL promoters Frankfurt Universe after the Allgäu Comets withdrew. It was the first time both teams took part in a European competition. As in the first two years after the restructuring of the EFL, three German teams were at the start.

Group stage

Group A

Defending champion Kiel lost the opening game somewhat surprisingly in overtime and had to hope for their "help" after the victory in Hamburg. For their part, the huskies would have had a theoretical minimum chance of reaching the finals if they had won in Amsterdam by more than fifty points. Ultimately, the hamburgers who were weakened and who lacked the starting quarterback managed to defeat Amsterdam and so the two-time defending champion Kiel was eliminated in the group phase.

	society	Sp	Points	TD	Diff.
1.	Amsterdam Crusaders	2	4-0	95:43	+52
2.	Kiel Baltic Hurricanes	2	2: 2	85:64	+21
3.	Hamburg huskies	2	0: 4	52: 125	−73

	Kiel April 9, 4 p.m.		Kiel Baltic Hurricanes	24:31	Amsterdam Crusaders		Kilia Stadium spectators: 2,460
				(0-0, 7:16, 7-0, 10:15) Match report

	Hamburg April 23, 4 p.m.		Hamburg huskies	33: 61	Kiel Baltic Hurricanes		Hammer Park Stadium spectators: 1,481
				(6: 7, 7:16, 14:10, 6:28) Game report

	Amsterdam May 7th 3pm		Amsterdam Crusaders	64: 19	Hamburg huskies		Sportpark Sloten Zuid spectators: 1,500
				(7: 6, 21:13, 15: 0, 21: 0) Match report

Group B

Frankfurt Universe managed a clear away win against Thonon in the club's first European cup game. Since Barcelona were also able to prevail against Thonon, the last encounter was the play-off game for entry into the EFL Bowl. Frankfurt had no major problems winning this game and thus made it into a final for the first time in the club's history.

	society	Sp	Points	TD	Diff.
1.	Frankfurt Universe	2	4-0	97: 7	+90
2.	Badalona Dracs	2	2: 2	53:90	−37
3.	Thonon Black Panthers	2	0: 4	41:94	−53

	Badalona March 19, 5:00 p.m.		Badalona Dracs	46: 41	Thonon Black Panthers		City-campground de Badalona
				(18: 0, 6: 7, 15:15, 7:19) Match report

	Thonon-les-Bains May 7th 6:00 pm		Thonon Black Panthers	0:48	Frankfurt Universe		Stade Joseph-Moynat
				(0:19, 0:20, 0: 6, 0: 3) Match report

	Frankfurt am Main May 28, 7 p.m.		Frankfurt Universe	49: 7	Badalona Dracs		Frankfurter Volksbank Stadium
				(7: 0, 28: 0, 7: 0, 7: 7)

EFL bowl

After the last group game, the organization of the EFL Bowl III was awarded to the team from Frankfurt. The game took place on June 11th in front of 6,056 spectators in the Frankfurter Volksbank Stadium and ended with a 35:21 win for the hosts. Due to the success of the Frankfurters, the third EFL Bowl also went to Germany. It was Universe's first international title.

			EFL Bowl III
	Frankfurt am Main June 11, 2016 7:00 p.m.		Frankfurt Universe	35: 21	Amsterdam Crusaders		Frankfurter Volksbank Stadium spectators: 6,056
				(13:14, 9: 0, 13: 0, 0: 7) Match report

See also

• Big6 European Football League 2016

Web links

• Official site of the EFL (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Roger Kelly: European Football League Tournament Teams Set To Go. In: americanfootballinternational.com. November 8, 2015, accessed November 15, 2015 . 
2. ↑ EFL 2016 without Comets. In: football-aktuell.de. December 21, 2015, accessed February 25, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Huskies start in the European Cup. In: gohuskies.de. January 22, 2016, accessed February 12, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Frankfurt moves into the final and organizes the EFL Bowl. In: eurobowl.info. AFVD, May 29, 2016, accessed May 30, 2016 . 
5. ↑ Samsung Frankfurt Universe is EFL champion. (No longer available online.) Samsung Frankfurt Universe, June 11, 2016, archived from the original on December 2, 2016 ; accessed on November 23, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.