The European League of Football isn’t exactly burning, but the general consensus is that something needs to be done about the fire.

Despite an uncharacteristic slip-up during the 10-game regular season, it was the maroon-and-gold colours of the Rhein Fire very much in evidence at the end of the 2024 campaign, the German giant again coming out on top in the championship game to hoist the ELF’s iconic silver trophy after victory over the previously unbeaten Vienna Vikings.

The win was the Fire’s second in as many years, and enough to move Rhein to the top of the all-time table, with Vienna (2022) and Frankfurt Galaxy (2021) the only other teams to have experienced a championship high. With no-one expecting the reigning champions to rest on their laurels — and head coach Jim Tomsula, once of the NFL, not one to allow any complacency — it will be up to the remaining 15 franchises to find a way of extinguishing their hopes of a ‘three-peat’.

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The ELF again opens with a slightly different look for 2025, unable to completely halt the turnover of teams that has blighted its four-year existence. Out from the 2024 lineup have gone Barcelona, the WLAF legacy name seemingly the victim of new management unaware of the exacting requirements of an ELF franchise, and Milan, who are taking a one-year hiatus to regroup and avoid falling into the same trap as their Spanish rival.

“We knew, when we started this league, that not all teams would develop in the same way,” ELF commissioner Patrick Esume admitted to ProSiebenSat.1 in December. “They are their own companies, with their own general managers, their own coaches, and their own focus, so it was clear that not all would grow equally. Milan needs a year’s break and we are now going down to 16 [teams], but this is the right way to go. We are sharpening our profile and it will make this league even more attractive. We owe that to the fans, the franchises and also to ourselves.”

Meanwhile, entering the league, and looking to have nailed the business side of being there, are the Nordic Storm, the culmination of three years of hard graft to expand the ELF footprint to Scandinavia, where it now straddles the Øresund to encompass the twin hosts of Sweden and Denmark.

The league certainly didn’t make entry easy for the Storm, and have continued to test the newcomers, literally providing a baptism of Fire by putting them in the same division as the reigning champions when revising their format from three groups to four. The two sides won’t meet until Week 9, but it could be seen as a first mark of respect to the newcomers that the rematch is slated for the 14th and final week of the regular season, when playoff fortunes could be on the line for both.

“I think there’s a lot of pressure for a first-year team,” Storm co-founder, and former ELF quarterback, Randy Schroeder told Gridiron. “It’s kind of crazy, and we all joke about it, but we haven’t even played a game yet and people are putting us in the playoffs!

“However, there’s also no other spot that we would rather be, as I think it shows that we’ve put together a team in the offseason that people consider as contenders. I know it sounds clichéd, but the truth is that we’ll worry just as much about facing Helvetic in May, then Wroclaw, then Berlin…”

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The Storm, in keeping with their ‘big wave’ logo, made a splash almost as soon as their identity as the latest addition was unveiled, prising their new head coach, John Shoop, away from under Tomsula’s nose, and then adding two of the Fire’s most prominent players: QB Jadrien Clark and 2024 MVP, running back Glen Toonga. Between them, Clark and Toonga were instrumental in securing the Fire’s back-to-back title successes, but Schroeder refuses to believe that their change of allegiance will weaken the reigning champions.

“I think the Fire are a heck of a team,” the American conceded, “so I don’t know about weakening them… They’ve brought in Chad Jeffries [to replace Clark] and signed a bunch of coaches. Remember the old Patriots dynasty, how every year coaches would leave because they’d all get head coaching jobs, and players would leave for bigger contracts? But who was still in the playoffs and who was still in the Super Bowl every year? The Patriots…

“I think the Rhein Fire, right now, is the dynasty that everybody’s trying to compete with. We play them in the division twice a year so we’ve got a gauntlet of a schedule. They’ve still got a great backbone there, and a great head coach who knows what he’s doing.”

Toonga, too, refuses to write off his former team, having twice reached the pinnacle with them.

“Winning back-to-back championships is undoubtedly one of the hardest things to achieve in sports,” he told Gridiron. “The year following a major victory often presents the greatest challenge because success can breed complacency, so what I truly admire about the Rhein Fire is their unwavering commitment to growth — not just on the field, but across every level of the organisation.

“A championship isn’t solely a reflection of the players; it’s the result of a collective effort. At the Fire, there was a shared mentality of continuous improvement, that we could always be better — more prepared, more disciplined and more connected — and being part of that environment for two championship seasons was incredibly special.”

So why leave, especially for an entirely new franchise?

“Complacency is something I actively try to avoid and, after achieving back-to-back championships and earning MVP, it would have been easy to stay comfortable,” Toonga reasoned. “Joining the Nordic Storm was a clear choice for me — the opportunity to contribute to a brand-new franchise, help establish a winning culture from day one and see if I have what it takes to lead a team to a championship in its inaugural season was incredibly motivating. It would have been easy for me to allow the fear of so many unknowns to dictate where I played this year.

“I wouldn’t have joined the Storm if I didn’t believe we had the potential to compete for a championship. We’ve assembled a roster that includes some of the best talent from Denmark and Sweden, and brought in coaches who understand what it takes to win. Of course, success isn’t built overnight but, for sure, we will be difficult to beat.”

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Of course, neither Toonga or Schroeder are about to dismiss any of the other 14 teams in the league, which both feel is getting more competitive by the year.

“With the way the league has evolved, teams will be far more difficult to beat than ever before,” the running back stressed. “The focus isn’t just on one franchise — every team poses a threat, and that’s what will make this season so exciting. There have been top players switching rosters, high-level talent returning to Europe and more experienced coaches joining the league. Because of that, I don’t see this as just a challenge to Rhein. Every team has improved in some way, and no-one can be taken lightly.”

Schroeder initially focused on the Storm’s North Division rivals before validating the chances of teams across the board, including another now boasting a former NFL head coach.

“I think, in our own division, Frankfurt has a really good roster and good coaches; I think Hamburg upgraded a ton this offseason; and then Rhein is Rhein…” he smiled. “I’ll be interested to see what Berlin do too — there’s not been a ton of noise coming from them, but they’ve picked up a little bit. And, of course, I’m anxious to see how Jack Del Rio does in Paris…

“Then, you have perennial contenders like Vienna and, if Tirol can keep a consistent roster throughout the year, I think they’re up there too. Wroclaw’s made some really good additions, and so has Helvetic. I truly believe that, where you maybe had two or three teams with a legitimate shot in recent years, this year it could be six… or eight… or ten. And I haven’t even mentioned Stuttgart or Madrid…”

The Storm owner isn’t the only one believing in a bright future for the ELF, as Prague Lions counterpart Mason Parker also reckons the league’s trajectory is moving in the right direction.

“The quality of our team is going up, and I think that’s also true across the board,” he told Gridiron. “I think the football is going to keep getting better and better. When people ask about ‘the best American football outside of the NFL’, for a long time, most people would probably have said the CFL. But I think, within a season or two, because of the quality of coaching and players that are coming here, the ELF could be it.”