GALAXY BOSS SLAMS ELF AS ‘UNATTRACTIVE’

Frankfurt Galaxy sporting director Thomas Kösling did not hold back as he doubled down on recent concerns surrounding operations at the top of the European League of Football.

Although his own franchise is enduring an up-and-down season far from befitting its proud history, it is a member of the European Football Alliance, which broke cover last week to criticise the way the ELF currently presents itself, following a string of lop-sided results and the postponement of the Helvetic Mercenaries’ fixture in Denmark against the Nordic Storm.

Eight of the ELF’s more professionally-run clubs — with Rhein Fire, Madrid Bravos, Paris Musketeers, Tirol Raiders, Vienna Vikings, Prague Lions, Wroclaw Panthers standing alongside the Galaxy — have expressed serious concerns about the direction the league, and some of its weaker teams, appear to be heading. The statement that accompanied the EFA’s emergence underlined ‘ongoing shortcomings in the league’s operations’, and claimed that ‘since its inception, the ELF has suffered from persistent issues: poor communication, a lack of transparency, financial mismanagement and under-performing centralised functions in areas such as merchandise, marketing, travel and media’, and Kösling took the fears further by claiming that ‘the league is more unattractive than ever’ and stating that ‘no franchise is making a profit — and we’re not even close!’.

Speaking with Frankfurt’s media head Marie Sommer on the team’s Out of Bounds podcast, Kösling let loose, claiming that the ELF does not appear to care that it has a failing product.

“We often talk about these results, but — subjectively and as neutrally as possible — the ELF is not a good football product at the moment,” he said ruefully. “If I want to be a new fan and I look at the league and see these results, see a game being cancelled — and you can say that’s because of the injuries, but we all know what the reason is – [but] you see 57-0, you see 60-0, you’d [think], ‘Why should I buy tickets?’. It’s entertainment, you pay your 20, 30 — or maybe even more — Euros for it, [but] it’s simply a step backwards from the years before. And then, of course, you have to say that the franchises now…”

Although he tails off before fully describing his thoughts on some of the lesser franchises within the 16-team ELF structure, including those that the EFA referred to as ‘certain teams directly owned or financially supported by the league or its affiliates’, Kösling is quickly back into his stride, emphasising how important a growing fanbase is to any club in the league, but lamenting what he sees as a lack of proper governance from those in charge.

“The most difficult step is how can we professionalise the sport, which is something that so many leagues, including in the U.S., have failed to do so far,” he noted. “We have this problem now. It’s all about new fans. Fortunately, we have a good core in Frankfurt, Rhein Fire has a good core, but we, as franchises, won’t be able to survive if we don’t generate new fans.

“As I always say, time will bear the burden. In the beginning, there’s euphoria, you invest, you’re a start-up, you somehow still feel like a start-up but, at some point, you have to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And we shouldn’t kid ourselves: attendance is declining. We’ve already said it, franchises are struggling. And it’s not just the lower franchises — which aren’t financially well-positioned anyway — that are struggling, but the top franchises are struggling too. Rhein Fire only has 7,000 or 8,000 spectators, which hurts their bottom line. If [teams] don’t fill the stadium with 6,000, 7,000 spectators, then it hurts their bottom line because they’re calculating. But I believe that the ELF isn’t currently serving a product that gives franchises the opportunity to operate profitably.”

With three teams, including the Mercenaries, still winless this season and frequently on the end of 50+ point defeats, the EFA has said that the management of the ELF needs to step up, or it may be forced to withdraw its member clubs from the competition, potentially leading to a breakaway league.