IT BREAKS MY HEART TO SEE WHAT’S HAPPENING TO THE SPORT RIGHT NOW
Two-time European League of Football champion Benjamin Barnes has made an impassioned plea for those involved in pulling professional football apart on the continent to come to their senses before it is too late for the game to be saved.
Taking to his social media feeds, Barnes — who played on both the inaugural ELF champion Frankfurt Galaxy team and the 2023 Rhein Fire squad that would go on to repeat the following season — addressed the rift between the ELF and the breakaway European Football Alliance from a player’s perspective, admitting that the current impasse was increasingly concerning.
Neither group has been able to publish concrete information regarding the 2026 season, with the ELF having lost the majority of its teams to the EFA which, in turn, has revealed little beyond the identity of those intending to take part in a league that has yet to take shape, in part because of further division within its ranks. Things have reached a new nadir with reigning ELF champion Stuttgart Surge revealing that it is filing for insolvency, having been unable to guarantee a future for its commercial partners, as well as the players and coaches that achieved success in 2025.
“Football is not just a sport for me,” Barnes began. “Anyone who knows me knows that football has been the centre of my life for years. Football saved my life, guys, and I’m endlessly grateful for all the friendships I was able to make and all the experiences I got to have.
“At the end of the day, I don’t care why things are happening the way they are — but we, as players, cannot allow football to be taken away from us in Europe. Like I said, it’s not just for me — for many players, it’s the centre of their lives, a home base, a place to escape. It’s so much more than just a sport.
“And I don’t even know why all of this is happening. But guys, at the end of the day, it’s on us players to say, ‘I don’t give a f*ck, no matter what happens. I don’t give a f*ck where I play. I just wanna play. Sure, we all want compensation. We all want money for driving 50,000 kilometres somewhere four times a week. But guys, at the end of the day, we want to play football.”
While clearly addressing his fellow warriors, the German dual-national also took aim at those running the sport, with financial transparency and arguments over how best to fund the game going forward having emerged as issues both at the heart of the EFA’s defection and, now, the split amongst its own membership.
“It breaks my heart to see what’s happening to the sport right now,” he continued. “There are way too many people everywhere — people who have no idea what they’re doing, people who only want to make quick money. But I’m here to tell you: These people do not control this sport. The 11 men on the field, the 5,000 people in the stands, the fans and the coaches… we control the sport.
“At the end of the day, all that matters is 22 men on the field, one ball in the middle, and let’s go. It don’t matter who’s watching if you really love this sport. Do you want to play football, or do you want to be content creators?
“When football was founded, the goal was never to make money from it. Never! My focus in football is to battle it out 11-on-11 and to entertain — because that’s what you do it for. Let’s not lose focus, please. American football is too important to so many people in this world, and I’ll be damned if I let this whole thing fall apart.
“We’ve come so far, guys. If you want to play football, go to your home club, strap up those cleats like we did back in the youth days. Go play. Forget about the money. We have to make sure football becomes big again. And that starts with the players. If you can’t do that, then you should seriously question whether you truly love this sport.
“Because American football is not just a sport. American football is a lifestyle — a life. So, before you pick up your cleats and your helmet, please think about what I said here. And let’s make football great again — together.”
Image credit: Sarah Philipp