STORM-MERCENARIES OFF AMID ROSTER, COACH DRAMAS
Saturday evening’s European League of Football fixture between the Nordic Storm and Helvetic Mercenaries has had to be postponed after the Swiss team proved unable to field a sufficient roster — a development that follows hot on the heels of the dismissal of head coach Marcus Herford.
Instead of travelling to Copenhagen, the Mercenaries — already reputed to be operating with a thinner squad than most of their rivals — opted to withdraw from the game, which will be postponed until a later date. Helvetic cite a significant injury list as the main contributor to their shortage of personnel, which put the team under the mandated minimum squad size.
In parallel with the decision not to fulfill the fixture, the Mercenaries also announced the immediate termination of their contract with head coach Herford, citing a disappointing first half of the season, in which the Swiss franchise sits 0-5, as well as internal developments at the club in recent days.
Herford took over as the Mercenaries’ sporting director in October last, and was responsible for the team’s development, recruiting and further development ahead of the 2025 campaign. Despite high expectations, and some gutsy performances in a losing cause, the team’s leadership was deemed to have failed in its pursuit of the progress necessary to turn the franchise around. As part of the ensuing ‘strategic realignment’, changes will be made within the wider coaching staff and individual players will be moved on.
“The Nordic Storm would like to send encouragement towards the Mercenaries in whatever difficult circumstances the team is currently facing that has led to the drastic decision of not being able to play Saturday’s game,” the Nordic Storm said in a statement. “We hope they will recover so that, in companionship, we can compete and grow the game of football together in the best league in Europe.
“We would also like to apologize for any inconvenience this may cause for our fans. The decision was completely out of our hands. We tried everything to accommodate the Mercenaries and organise things so the game could still be played, unfortunately without success.”
With an unexpected bye week, the Storm will turn their attention to the forthcoming away game against the Hamburg Sea Devils on July 6th, which precedes the biggest game of the club’s short history when they take on the reigning champion Rhein Fire in Copenhagen on July 13th. Helvetic, meanwhile, are scheduled to have back-to-back home games against Paris and Munich in the next couple of weeks.