TEAMS WIN AS HAMBURG COURT QUASHES ELF INJUNCTION
The ongoing legal conflict between the European League of Football and several of its former franchises has taken another major turn after it was announced that the Hamburg Regional Court had rejected an application for a preliminary injunction filed in a bid to prevent those teams competing elsewhere in 2026.
According to a statement released by Munich American Football Holding GmbH (MAFH), the 15th Chamber for Commercial Matters of the Hamburg Regional Court dismissed the injunction application in its entirety, with the ruling covering parallel proceedings brought against all involved EFA-affiliated organisations.
The dispute stems from the off-season split that reshaped the upper tier of European American football, with multiple former ELF organisations — including the Paris Musketeers, Nordic Storm and Raiders Tirol — leaving the ELF structure to form the foundation of the new European Football Alliance.
While the precise legal arguments advanced by the ELF have not yet been fully published through formal court documentation, the dispute has widely been understood to centre around league participation rights, contractual obligations, intellectual property concerns and the legality of former ELF member organisations participating in a competing league structure so soon after their departures.
The Munich statement portrayed Thursday’s ruling as a decisive moment for both the Ravens and the EFA project as a whole.
“With this court decision, the long-overdue clarity has finally been achieved,” the missive read. “Even the teams that played in the ELF until last season can [now] participate in the EFA league without restrictions.”
The club further argued that the decision would allow the EFA’s development ‘to continue as planned’, with owner Thomas Krohne welcoming the ruling before immediately turning his attention back toward the field as the opening weekend of the season approaches.
“We are eagerly anticipating a successful and highly competitive season in the EFA, with teams from Paris, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Prague and Innsbruck,” Krohne said. “Our focus is now solely on the sport, our players and our fantastic fans.”
Thursday’s ruling represents another significant development during an already volatile period for the ELF. Over recent months, the league has dealt with financial uncertainty, restructuring efforts and the highly publicised departure of multiple cornerstone franchises, while simultaneously attempting to protect its commercial position and competitive standing within a fragmenting European football landscape. The legal confrontation increasingly become a battle over the future structure of professional American football in Europe, with the ELF insisting that clubs with years remaining on their contracts were bound to the organisation. Meanwhile, EFA-linked stakeholders have repeatedly promoted the concept of stronger club autonomy and more decentralised governance, and the rival American Football League Europe opted to follow its own path after leaving the ELF over similar concerns. The ELF, however, has continued to position itself as Europe’s leading professional league with established infrastructure, broadcast partnerships and commercial reach, despite Zeljko Karajica’s concern lacking the one thing that is essential to a league: teams.
The Hamburg decision does not necessarily end the wider dispute. Preliminary injunction proceedings are designed to determine urgent interim measures rather than conclusively deciding the full merits of a broader commercial case, meaning further litigation between the leagues or individual clubs remains possible.
An official statement from the EFA is understood to be pending following the court ruling. For now, however, the judgment provides a substantial legal victory for the EFA and the former ELF organisations that chose to align themselves with the new competition ahead of the 2026 season.