European Football Leagues (Major & AAA – Levels 1-2)
After the US Air Force & Army Leagues, the National Football League set about promoting the NFL in Europe. In 1970 the film M*A*S*H saw the first mainstream exposure of American Football in Europe with its climactic Football game at the end. Immediately following this there were expressions of interest from Europeans about setting up a League, and what followed was the Intercontinental Football League, which was to feature 6 teams, including the Rome Gladiators, owned by Bruno Beneck, the director of the most popular TV Sports Show in Italy, who had successfully introduced Baseball 20 years earlier. The League never got off the ground due to the oil crisis and the spectre of Terrorism, but the IFL continued to promote the game, playing a game in 1972 in Paris featuring NFL players, as well as bringing College teams and Semi-Pro Teams from 1976-1978 to play a best-of-5 European Championship.
TV stations started showing American Football in the late-1970s and early 1980s and the first Leagues sprang up, including the Rome Gladiators in Bruno Beneck’s Italy. By 1986 the National Football League had begun to play Pre-Season games in London, Barcelona, Berlin and Dublin. The European audiences soon wanted more so the World League of American Football, featuring 3 European teams, 6 American and one Canadian, was started in 1991. It lasted two seasons before being shelved by the NFL due to the lack of interest from American fans in a Development League. The American Football League of Europe, which ran from 1994-1995 filled in the gap in Pro Football, with its mix of start-up teams and teams from the European National Leagues bolstered by American imports.
The World League returned in 1995 as a 6-team Europe-only League and was renamed the NFL Europe League in 1998. After initial success, attendances dwindled – the fans wanted an NFL franchise – so in 2007 the NFL folded the League and focused on promoting the NFL in Europe through the NFL International Series – starting with one NFL Regular Season game a year played in London, growing to 4-per-year by 2020, with the stated intention of putting a team in London permanently by 2022.
European Football Leagues
European Football Leagues
Map of ELF European League of Football Teams 2023 for eirball.ie [M-1] Map Contributor: Rainer Lesniewski (2022) Stock Vector ID: 151344206europe map [Internet] Available from: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/europe-map-151344206 [Accessed 4 June 2023][Overlaid with ELF Team Logos by Enda Mulcahy for Eirball.ie][Logo References: ELF-1 to ELF-18]
Irish National Players in Top Level World Leagues
European Leagues Standings & Playoffs
European League of Football
ELF Championship 2023: TBC
ELF Championship 2022: Vienna Vikings 27 Hamburg Sea Devils 15
ELF Championship 2021: Frankfurt Galaxy 32 Hamburg Sea Devils 30
European Leagues Seasons
European Super League
Amsterdam Crusaders Independent European Schedule
Amsterdam Crusaders Euro Schedule 2018
American Football League of Europe
American Football League of Europe 1995
European League of American Football
European League (UK & Continental Conferences) 1993
Hamburg Blue Devils Independent Schedule American Football Team 1993
World League of American Football
World Bowl 92: Sacramento Surge 21 Orlando Thunder 17
International League of American Football 1990
*ILAF Championship 1990: Schedule released – Did not start
European Football Leagues Overviews:
League of American Football 2016-2018
Central European Football League 2006-2016
National Football League Europe 1998-2007
World League of American Football 1995-1997
American Football League of Europe 1993-1995
World League of American Football 1991-1992
Northern Italian Football League 1976-1986
About European Football Leagues
The First attempts at creating a European American Football League were in the 1970s following the hit film M*A*S*H and its climactic ending featuring an American Football game which intrigued European audiences.
Following on from this a couple of failed start-ups led in 1991 to the National Football League (NFL) creating the World League of American Football (WLAF) as a Development League. After two years with teams in USA, Canada and Europe it was shelved and returned in 1995 as a Europe-only league which itself was shelved in 2007 in order to promote the NFL itself in Europe through the International Series of NFL regular season games in London.
Following a number of low-key European Leagues, based primarily in Central and Eastern Europe between 2007 and 2019, the European League of Football in 2021 became the latest big-time Professional Football League in Europe, retaining the rights to the old WLAF / NFLE team names.
European Football League Teams (Level 0)
European Football Leagues
Map of ELF European League of Football Teams 2023 for eirball.ie [M-1] Map Contributor: Rainer Lesniewski (2022) Stock Vector ID: 151344206europe map [Internet] Available from: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/europe-map-151344206 [Accessed 4 June 2023][Overlaid with ELF Team Logos by Enda Mulcahy for Eirball.ie][Logo References: ELF-1 to ELF-18]
European League of Football 2021-2022
ELF Northern Conference (2021-2022)
Irish-born Panthers Players: Tadgh Leader and Kevin Mayo 2021
ELF Southern Conference (2021-2023)
ELF Central Conference (2022-2023)
ELF Eastern Conference (2023)
ELF Western Conference (2023)
World League of American Football (Europe & North America 1991-1992)
WLAF European Division (1991-1992)
WLAF North American East Division (1991-1992)
WLAF North American West Division (1991-1992)
USA Pro Leagues in Europe
NFL; USFL
Picture Credit: Football on Field by Jean-Daniel Francouer
USA MAJOR FOOTBALL LEAGUES IN EUROPE
National Football League
National Football League International | Regular Season Games in London 2007-Present
National Football League | American Bowl Pre-Season Games in Europe 1986-1997
National Football League Intercontinental 1972-1978
Arena Football League
Arena Football League Preseason Games in Europe 1989
United States Football League
United States Football League | Postseason Exhibition Game in London 1984
USA MINOR FOOTBALL LEAGUES IN EUROPE
Intercontinental Football League
Intercontinental Football League European Championship 1976-1978
Intercontinental Football League European Championship
Intercontinental Football League European Championship 1978
United States Armed Forces in Europe Leagues
Among the earliest verifiable American Football Leagues or Associations in Europe are the American Expeditionary Force Football League of WWI which was played in France at the conclusion of the War. There was a European Theater of Operations Football Championship (WWII) in Northern Ireland in 1942, which spread to England and Wales in 1943-1944. Following WWII, the United States found itself almost immediately in a War with Communist Russia, and American Football Leagues were set up in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain & Greece (The United States Air Force in Europe – USAFE – Football League & United States ARmy EURope Football League – USAREUR) which ran right to the end of the Cold War. One USAREUR League, the Northern Italian League, became the genesis of a National League in Italy featuring Homegrown teams.
Cold War Europe (USAFE and USAREUR)
After World War II and as the Cold War set in, the United States Air Force in Europe set up a Football Championship with three Conferences: United Kingdom, Continental (France and Germany) and Mediteranean (Italy, Spain and Greece) Sports Conferences. There was also a smaller USAREUR (United States Army in Europe) Football League. The USAFE Championship wound down in 1993 due to the end of the Cold War.
Cold War (USAFE and USAREUR)
Picture Credit: Football on Field by Jean-Daniel Francouer
Cold War (USAFE – Air Force)
Intercontinental Football League College and Air Force Games 1972-1973
United States Air Force in Europe Football League | Finals 1952-1993
United States Air Force in Europe | United Kingdom Sports Conference 1951-1993
United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE) Football League Continental Sports Conference 1956-1960
United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE) Football League France Sports Conference 1953-1955
Cold War (USAREUR – Army)
Northern Italian Football League 1976-1986
United States Armed Forces in Europe | Northern Italian League 1974-1975
United States Army in Europe (USAREUR) Football League Com Z Conference 1953-1960
World Wars in Europe (AEF and ETO)
The American Expeditionary Force (France WWI) and European Theater of Operations (Britain and Northern Ireland WWII) United States Army and Navy Units played Football Leagues during World War I and II in France, Britain, Northern Ireland, and North Africa.
World War I & II (AEF and ETO)
AEFFL (1914-1919); ETO (1940-1945)
Picture Credit: 1920s Football Action – Everett Collection Shutterstock
World War II (UK & North Africa – Army & Air Force)
European Theater of Operations Championship 1942-1944
ETO Football Championship (Seasons):
World War I (France – Navy & Army)
American Expeditionary Force Football League 1918-1919
AEFFL (Seasons)
