IS THE ELF DEAD?

It may not be the most Christmassy of stories, but word is reaching Gridiron that the European League of Football as we know it is no more. Put starkly, the ELF is dead.

The ongoing rift in European professional football was always going to have casualties. Reigning ELF champion Stuttgart Surge have already filed for insolvency; the Féhérvar Enthroners opted to return to the Austrian national league rather than wait for the split to be resolved; the Helvetic Mercenaries continue to sign players without saying anything about the emergence of a second Swiss team; and the whereabouts of the Cologne Centurions is anyone’s guess. Now, however, it appears that the league that they all once belonged to has also been bumped off.

There are two lines of enquiry that theorists will pick up on following the ELF’s supposed demise. The first would be answered with an alles in ordnung response as the European Football Alliance, which basically took control of the ELF once the summer’s first divide was partially healed by the repatriation of five teams, confirm the likely ousting of former ELF CEO Zeljko Karajica, whose running of the business side of the league caused the mass defection of teams in the first place — and continued to be a sticking point with regards to bringing everyone back together under a single flag.

Gridiron has already been told that the most effective way of removing Karajica from what was supposed to be a more minor role in league operations would be to wind the ELF up for good, and it may be that the EFA has taken that route, clearing the way for the creation of a new competition in 2026.

That, however, is only one possibility…

The other is that the ELF has simply ceased to exist, leaving its six confirmed teams — Prague, Paris, Frankfurt, Nordic, Tirol and Madrid — to make a humbling about-turn and join the rival American Football League Europe.

The AFLE — or The League: Europe as it prefers to be known — spent the run up to the festive season going tit-for-tat with the ELF as they traded member confirmations, even though the likely competing teams were already known. The AFLE, however, insists that it has more cards to play and, even though the ELF had announced future franchises in London and Milan for 2027, it is the newcomer that continues to dominate social media, with a team in Monaco, funded by no less than the royal family, expected to come on stream any day now. The nascent league has already added Swiss newcomer Alpine Rams to the fold and revealed that a Paris team of its own will be announced on Super Bowl Sunday. It also claims to have interests in the UK and Italy lined up to take part this season and only this week launched a rebranding of its logo. Not something you invest in if you’re not sure of the future.

So, what of the rumoured death of the ELF?

For the good of football on the old continent, pushing all teams back under one umbrella is the preferred outcome, even if there are differences of opinion over how a single league should be funded and operation that need sorting out. The independent elf.network has today (8th January) posted a multi-slide Instagram plea calling for both sides to settle their feud in the best interests of the sport, while former Rhein Fire assistant head coach Fred Armstrong, now of the Prague Lions, agrees that division in the ranks will ultimately benefit no-one.

“Europe is too small to be divided,” Armstrong told footbowl.eu. “Without players, without coaches and without referees, there is no product. No television, no league, nothing.

“If we want to play professional football, then we must also act professionally. Money, structure and reliability are essential for this. The next model we establish in Europe must be the final one. I have observed this for over three decades now – we cannot afford another failure.”