European League of Football

The announcement of the league was met with skepticism from some Germans involved in the sport due to the failures of similar leagues in the past. The Chairman of the German Football League (GFL), Robert Huber, said, "...we have experience over the last forty years in running leagues in Germany and in Europe and we have a pretty good insight into what the teams are capable of". However, Commissioner Patrick Esume firmly believes that this league will succeed because "American football is experiencing a boom in Germany".[3]

The first two new franchises to reveal their identity have been Ingolstadt Praetorians and Hanover-based team German Knights 1367, in early December 2020.[4][5] They were followed by the Spanish team Gladiators Football, who also revealed they will play their games out of Costa Daurada, and will be coached by long-time CFL coach Adam Rita.[6][7]

In March 2021, the league announced it has reached an agreement with the NFL, to be able to use the team names from the days of NFL Europe. On the same day, it was announced the franchises in Hamburg and Frankfurt will use the previous names of Hamburg Sea Devils and Frankfurt Galaxy.[8] The Sea Devils also introduced their new head coach, former special teams coach for multiple NFL teams, Ted Daisher.[9] It was then announced that the franchises in Ingolstadt and Hannover aren't ready to launch in 2021, so they were replaced with two new teams, in Leipzig and Cologne, and also that the franchises in Cologne, Berlin and Barcelona will use their names from NFL Europe.[10]

In June 2021, the league announced a partnership agreement with the Brazilian Football Federation, Brasil Futebol Americano, that will see exchange opportunities for selected players, coaches and officials, as well as the possibility of organizing a match between the ELF and BFA champions in the future.[11]

In July 2021, the league announced its inaugural All-Star Game, which will be held one week after the end of the season, on October 3 (German Unity Day), at Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark in Berlin. It will feature a selection of the best players from the ELF, playing against the United States men's national American football team.[12] Similar to the rules for rosters of individual teams, the all star team is limited to a maximum of four Americans of which only two can be on the field at any given time.

The ELF has said they hope to bring back the excitement around American football that existed in the era of NFL Europe. Unlike NFL Europe, whose team rosters consisted of mostly American players, there will be restrictions to the number of international players allowed on rosters. There will be a bigger focus given to homegrown players, with the goal to develop the best of these players into NFL prospects. One way they plan on doing this is by creating an "ELF Academy". While ELF franchises will not have "youth teams", CEO Zeljko Karajica says that the academy will "...give players the opportunity to make the next step", which would be the skills to succeed in the ELF and compete for a spot on an NFL team.

The ELF plays with modified NFL rules, except for the overtime, where they use college football's rules. Unlike most European sports leagues (including European American football leagues) a game that is still tied at the end of regulation during the regular season goes to overtime. However, no overtime was actually played in the inaugural 2021 season as all games had a winner after regulation. During the regular season of the inaugural 2021 season, the ELF did not have instant replay or other forms of Replay review in gridiron football (such as "Coach's challenge"), however this feature was introduced for the 2021 ELF Bowl as well as announced for the upcoming season.

On 30 November 2021, the official Twitter account of the European League of Football announced a new kickoff rule. The new rule sees the kicking teams players, except the kicker, line up on their opponents 35-yard line, while the receiving teams players, except the returner, line up on their own 30-yard line. Both teams are only allowed to move when the ball has either been touched by the returner or three seconds after the ball has touched the ground. This rule is nearly identical to the Kickoff rule used by the 2020 iteration of the XFL. Only the requirement, that the ball must be kicked between the receiving teams 20-yard line and endzone, is, at this time, not a part of the rule. The main cited reason for the rule change was player safety.[13]

Rosters consist of a maximum of 50 players, plus another 10 on the practice squad. Because homegrown players are one of the main focus points of the league, there are limitations for the numbers of foreigners. Each roster can only have a maximum of 4 US, Canadian, Mexican or Japanese players ("A-players"), and a maximum of 10 other foreign players for the 2021 season,[2] which got reduced to 8 players for the 2022 season.[14][15] However, the Bosman ruling prevents discrimination against EU citizens in EU based sports teams and leagues. Brazilian players do not count towards the import quota due to the league's partnership with Liga BFA.[11]

For American "import" players the league pays a salary that can range from €600 (around $700) to €3,000 ($3,500) per month, and provides housing, health insurance and two meals per day during the season.[16]

In the inaugural 2021 season the ELF had 8 teams (6 in Germany, 1 in Poland and 1 in Spain) split into 2 divisions: North (Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig and Wrocław) and South (Barcelona, Cologne, Frankfurt and Stuttgart).

The ELF currently (as of the upcoming 2022 season) has 12 teams, divided into 3 conferences. The league has 7 teams in Germany, 2 in Austria, and 1 team each from Poland, Spain and Turkey.[17]

Dragons

Kings

Thunder

Galaxy

Sea Devils

Surge

Centurions

Panthers

Vikings

Raiders

Fire

Rams

Location of ELF teams

• Northern Conference
• Central Conference
• Southern Conference

Current teams

Team	City	Stadium(s)	Capacity	Joined	Head coach
Northern Conference
Berlin Thunder	Berlin	Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark	19,708	2021	Johnny Schmuck
Hamburg Sea Devils	Hamburg	Stadion Hoheluft	11,000	2021	Charles "Yogi" Jones
Leipzig Kings	Leipzig	Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark	4,999	2021	Fred Armstrong
Wrocław Panthers	Wrocław	Wrocław Olympic Stadium	11,000	2021	Jakub Samel
Central Conference
Frankfurt Galaxy	Frankfurt	PSD Bank Arena	12,542	2021	Thomas Kösling
Tirol Raiders	Innsbruck	Tivoli Stadion Tirol	16,008	2022	Kevin Herron
Stuttgart Surge	Stuttgart	Gazi-Stadion auf der Waldau	11,410	2021	Martin Hanselmann
Vienna Vikings	Vienna	Generali Arena Vienna	17,500	2022	Chris Calaycay
Southern Conference
Barcelona Dragons	Barcelona/Reus	Estadi Municipal	4,700	2021	Andrew Weidinger
Rhein Fire	Düsseldorf/Duisburg	Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena	31,514	2022	Jim Tomsula
Istanbul Rams	Istanbul	Maltepe Hasan Polat Stadium	5,000	2022	Val Gunn
Cologne Centurions	Cologne	Südstadion	11,748	2021	Frank Roser

For the inaugural season, the league signed a deal to have 13 games, including the playoffs and championship game, broadcast live in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on ProSieben Maxx, with all other games streamed live on ran.de and More Than Sports TV.[27][28] All games are also available worldwide, on the league's website, service provided by British company StreamAMG.[29]

Region(s)	Broadcaster(s)
Germany Austria Switzerland	ProSieben Maxx ranSport More Than Sports TV
Spain	Esport3[30]
Turkey	S Sport[31]
International	ELF Gamepass

• Official website