NFL Europe

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Logo of the NFL Europe

The NFL Europe , most recently NFL Europe , was the European "offshoot" of the National Football League (NFL), the most famous professional league in American football . The NFLE was originally founded in 1991 as the World League of American Football ( WLAF ). In June 2007 the game was stopped after 15 seasons.

History of US professional football in Europe

In order to make its professional American football better known in Europe, the American Football League NFL held preparatory games under the name American Bowl from 1986 in London's Wembley Stadium and from 1990 also in the Berlin Olympic Stadium .

In order to open up markets outside the USA, to provide young players and reservists with game practice and, last but not least, to refute the accusation of monopoly formation for professional footballers under US labor law, some owners of NFL teams a To set up their own league with youth teams, similar to what the baseball clubs do with their farm teams . Since this new football league was not limited to the USA, but was to be present worldwide, it was called the World League of American Football . The six teams in the USA, three in Europe and the team in Canada were divided into three divisions. In Europe, in addition to the already established London, Barcelona also came into play as an Olympic city in 1992 with a renovated Olympic Stadium . Frankfurt was selected for Germany because of the large number of US military represented there, from whom they hoped for a secure fan base, as they did not want to rely on the German fans alone.

The WLAF from 1991 to 1992

Main article: World League of American Football

The WLAF's game operations began with the opening game on March 23, 1991 in the Waldstadion in Frankfurt . In front of 23,167 spectators, Frankfurt Galaxy lost 11:24 to the London Monarchs . The television coverage for Germany was done by the former broadcaster Tele 5 . Ten games were played until June. The three European teams beat the opponents from overseas mostly clearly - to the displeasure of the fans and press there. In the inaugural season in 1991, the London Monarchs won a World Bowl home win against the Barcelona Dragons , which was broadcast by the then satellite television broadcaster Super Channel .

For the second season, care was taken to ensure that the US teams got the better players, whereupon Orlando and Sacramento were able to negotiate the 1992 World Bowl among themselves in Montreal . The fans in Europe, however, remained loyal to their teams, which were no longer so victorious, and enjoyed a party in the stadium even when they lost. Nevertheless, the WLAF's gaming operations were discontinued by the investors - for the time being, as it was said. Curiously, the "World League of American Football" did not fail, as feared, because of the lack of interest outside the USA, but in the home of the sport. However, the years 1993 and 1994 were used to develop a new concept. In addition, the American Bowl games in Berlin continued.

The 1995 World League comeback

After a two-year break, games were resumed in 1995 - without teams in the USA, with a purely European league, which, however, retained the name , which has now been shortened to World League . It wasn't until 1998 that the global claim was abandoned and the NFL approved the use of their "good name". The offshoot league was named NFL Europe .

The players' squads are mostly made up of hopeful young players who could not get a place in the NFL teams, and some substitutes posted by the NFL teams who were supposed to gather game practice. In the past, there were also the so-called "Nationals". These non-American actors should increase international interest. Due to the concentration on Germany, this no longer works. Experienced talents from German amateur teams like Werner Hippler were able to make a significant contribution to the game and, in individual cases, also make the leap into the NFL.

Particularly noteworthy are two kickers who achieved cult status in their teams as well as with the fans: Manfred Burgsmüller at Rhein Fire , who was the oldest active football player in the world in his last season in 2002 at the age of 52, and Rob Hart at the Scottish Claymores , who all Field goals kicked barefoot.

In response to the public's interest, some new locations and teams were founded in Europe, but some were also dissolved or moved to new locations according to the model in the NFL. After the waning of interest in London, the founding team, known as the London Monarchs in 1998, became the Berlin Thunder team in 1999 . After the similar end of the Barcelona Dragons, which moved to the Rhine as Cologne Centurions , Frankfurt Galaxy was the only founding team left.

End of the NFL Europe

After the Scottish Claymores were replaced by the Hamburg Sea Devils , the NFL Europe was almost an "NFL Germany" from 2005 with the five teams in Germany . The only team not based in Germany were the Amsterdam Admirals from the Netherlands .

After the games of the NFL Europe had been reported for years via cable or satellite in free-to-air television, in 2005 the pay-TV channel was limited to Premiere , which, however , meant that the general public could hardly take notice of the football league. For the 2006 season, the niche broadcaster NASN acquired the broadcasting rights in a package with the rights for the National Football League (NFL) and showed two of the three matches live or "as live" (time-shifted, but unabridged) every week. In addition, the ARD succeeded in signing a long-term contract with the NFL, which enabled summaries in the sports show as well as an hour-long summaries of the NFL Europe games on the third programs (e.g. in rbb ). In addition, a one-hour summary of the World Bowl was shown on ARD. In addition, ARD broadcast the Super Bowl, the NFL final, live for the first time in February 2006.

In the USA, the NFL's own broadcaster, NFL Network , showed many games live or in full length with a time delay, as the NFL had a break in games during this time.

On October 31, 2006, the name was changed to NFL Europe and a new logo was presented.

On June 29, 2007 it was announced that the game operations of the NFL Europe will be discontinued. So the Hamburg Sea Devils are the last masters of this series. From now on, the NFL wanted to concentrate fully on the "regular season games" outside the USA. The first NFL game in Europe took place on October 28, 2007 between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants in London. Meanwhile, the Arena Football League had secured the rights to the names and logos of the old NFL European teams. That could have meant that the NFL Europe could have made a comeback indoors in 2009. Possible venues would have been the Color Line Arena (Hamburg), the ISS Dome (Düsseldorf), the Lanxess Arena (Cologne), the SAP Arena (Mannheim) and the London Arena. In the course of the financial crisis, however, the parent league was stopped, which is why the Europe project was postponed indefinitely.

Audience numbers

Spectators 2005 to 2007

The number of viewers in the 2007 season had increased again overall and had exceeded the number for 2005. For the first time since the all-European league was founded in 1995, the average attendance was over 20,000 fans per game. However, the development was inconsistent.

  • Frankfurt Galaxy, Rhein Fire and Hamburg Sea Devils had clearly made up for the audience losses of the previous season and exceeded 2005 by far.
  • Cologne Centurions had also made up the loss, but not so clearly.
  • Berlin Thunder was also able to record an increase, albeit not reaching the 2005 figure.
  • Only the Amsterdam Admirals suffered a loss of spectators again in 2007.

The order of the average number of visitors remained the same:

society 2005 season 2006 season 2007 season Change 06/07
GermanyGermany Frankfurt Galaxy 29,377 28,118 33,043 + 4,925
GermanyGermany Rhine Fire 22,532 22,020 24,473 + 2,453
GermanyGermany Hamburg Sea Devils 17,920 15,082 20,874 + 5,792
GermanyGermany Berlin Thunder 16,848 13,819 15,710 + 1,891
GermanyGermany Cologne Centurions 14,238 13,538 14,352 + 814
NetherlandsNetherlands Amsterdam admirals 12,877 13,421 11,668 - 1,753
Visitors per game 18,966 17,666 20,020 + 2,354

Audience figures since the league was founded

year Games Total cut
1991 50 1,268,066 25,361
1992 50 1,210,817 24,216
1993 - - -
1994 - - -
1995 30th 436.853 14,562
1996 30th 516.171 17.206
1997 30th 546.433 18,214
1998 30th 499.034 16,634
1999 30th 544,844 18,161
2000 30th 540,438 18,015
2001 30th 557.038 18,568
2002 30th 541,546 18,052
2003 30th 494,448 16,482
2004 30th 477.741 15,925
2005 30th 568,935 18,965
2006 30th 529.988 17,666
2007 30th 600.602 20,020
490 9,332,954 19,047

Champion ( World Bowl winner)

World Bowl (WLAF)

  • WB I: London, 9 June 1991 London Monarchs 21: 0 Barcelona DragonsEnglandEngland SpainSpain
  • WB II: Montreal, June 6, 1992 Sacramento Surge 9:17 pm Orlando ThunderUnited StatesUnited States United StatesUnited States

World Bowl (World League)

  • WB III: Amsterdam, June 17, 1995 Frankfurt Galaxy 26:22 Amsterdam AdmiralsGermanyGermany NetherlandsNetherlands
  • WB IV: Edinburgh, June 23, 1996 Scottish Claymores 32:27 Frankfurt GalaxyScotlandScotland GermanyGermany
  • WB V: Barcelona, ​​June 22, 1997 Barcelona Dragons 38:24 Rhein FireSpainSpain GermanyGermany

World Bowl (NFL Europe)

  • WB VI: Frankfurt, June 14, 1998 Rhein Fire 34:10 Frankfurt GalaxyGermanyGermany GermanyGermany
  • WB VII: Düsseldorf, June 27, 1999 Frankfurt Galaxy 38:24 Barcelona DragonsGermanyGermany SpainSpain
  • WB VIII: Frankfurt, June 25, 2000 Rhein Fire 13:10 Scottish ClaymoresGermanyGermany ScotlandScotland
  • WB IX: Amsterdam, June 30, 2001 Berlin Thunder 24:17 Barcelona DragonsGermanyGermany SpainSpain
  • WB X: Düsseldorf, June 22, 2002 Berlin Thunder 26:20 Rhein FireGermanyGermany GermanyGermany
  • WB XI: Glasgow, June 14, 2003 Frankfurt Galaxy 35:16 Rhein FireGermanyGermany GermanyGermany
  • WB XII: Gelsenkirchen, June 12, 2004 Berlin Thunder 30:24 Frankfurt GalaxyGermanyGermany GermanyGermany
  • WB XIII: Düsseldorf, June 11, 2005 Amsterdam Admirals 27:21 Berlin ThunderNetherlandsNetherlands GermanyGermany
  • WB XIV: Düsseldorf, May 27, 2006 Frankfurt Galaxy 22: 7 Amsterdam AdmiralsGermanyGermany NetherlandsNetherlands

World Bowl (NFL Europe)

  • WB XV: Frankfurt, June 23, 2007 Hamburg Sea Devils 37:28 Frankfurt GalaxyGermanyGermany GermanyGermany

Note: Officially, the World Bowls were only designated with the year until 2000, only after that, like the Super Bowl , were numbered with Roman numerals.

Teams

Teams from Europe

Teams from North America

Supplier to NFLE

See also

Web links

Commons : NFL Europe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yahoo Deutschland Sport: AFL Europe wants to start playing in 2009 . As of December 26, 2007