Eurogridiron: News & Views

Could Spain get its first AFLE team?

2026-11-02T00:00:00Z

Spain has a real bid for a place in the AFLE, though nothing is signed. On Saturday 31 October the league's new chief executive, Jim Tomsula, was at the Estadio Ciudad de Málaga to see Team Andalucía Football, a new Málaga-based club that wants to join. According to the club, around 50 players from across Andalucía trained in front of him. He then ran a technical session with them and sat down for meetings about organisation, facilities and possible funding.

He told 101TV: "We want Spain to be part of the AFLE project. We're very interested in it. However it works, one team, two, three…" ("Queremos que España sea parte del proyecto AFLE. Estamos muy interesados en ello. Como sea, un equipo, dos, tres…"). He said the club had invited him and that the league wants "a conversation with the teams and the players". He also said it was Alejandro Fernández, a player he'd coached and who is "like part of the family", who told him about football in Spain and helped persuade him to come. 101TV goes as far as saying his intention is to bring Team Andalucía into the league.

The club is very young. Diario Sur reports that it started as an idea for an Andalusian regional team; according to sporting director Juan Antonio Rejano the Andalusian federation then pulled out, so it carried on as a private club, with Gatorade and El Corte Inglés among its sponsors. More than 100 players went to trials in Jerez, Sevilla and Málaga, and 50 made the final roster. Its first official training session was on the day of Tomsula's visit. In October Rejano told the paper that "the European league is interested in us competing", and the stated aim is to join the AFLE next season, which would make it the first Spanish team in the league. For now, 101TV says, the squad is training and looking for friendlies.

Nothing has been agreed. The club's own press release, put out on 2 November, says the visit is not a definitive agreement and does not confirm a place for next season; the two sides are still talking about the sporting, organisational and financial requirements. Neither the AFLE nor the club has announced a deal, and until one of them does this is a bid only. Read the local coverage with care. Málaga al Día's report on the visit says the club is aiming for the "European League of Football", which is a different league from the AFLE.

The chief executive went in person, less than a week after taking the job, and said "one team, two, three" on the record. That is more than a courtesy call. Málaga has a stadium, good air links and, as Rejano puts it, plenty of foreign visitors. The hard part is what those meetings were about, the money and the structure behind a club like this. One official training session in, it has a long way to go before it can play a full season against the likes of Vienna and Rhein Fire.

My prediction: Broncos by seven against the Chiefs

2026-10-31T00:00:00Z

The Broncos host the Chiefs on Sunday (21:25 GMT), and I think Denver win by about seven.

They've won three in a row, and at 5-2 against Kansas City's 5-1, a win would put them top of the AFC West. Bo Nix looks to be getting back to his usual self. Against Arizona last week he threw for 222 yards and ran in a 62-yard touchdown, and I think this game will confirm it.

There's a score to settle, too. The Chiefs won the opener 31-10 at Arrowhead in September, but they haven't won at Mile High since Sean Payton took over. He's won all three home games against them, 24-9 in 2023, 38-0 in 2024 and 22-19 last season.

With RJ Harvey ruled out, rookie Jonah Coleman should get more of the ball, and Wil Lutz has been reliable, making 12 of 15 field goals and every extra point. The big job is keeping Kenneth Walker on a leash. He leads the league with 116.8 rushing yards a game and ran for 173 in the first meeting.

Broncos by seven.

The AFLE has had a busy few weeks

2026-10-29T00:00:00Z

On 27 October the league named Jim Tomsula as its CEO, with immediate effect. He had been the league's President since the summer. Few people know European football better. He coached Rhein Fire back in NFL Europe, then led them to back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024. "This league is here to stay," he said, and it's the right message.

A day later, Rhein Fire named Sammy Schmale as managing director from November. He ran the club from 2004 to 2007, in the final NFL Europe years, so it feels like a homecoming.

And the Warsaw Eagles join for 2027 as the ninth franchise. They're an established Polish club and have already appointed Deante Battle as head coach. Real moves, all of them.

Year one was shaky off the field. The league itself stepped in twice. In August it activated a financial protection plan for Berlin Thunder, and later that month it became majority owner of Rhein Fire, saying the move averted "an imminent insolvency". According to football-austria.com, citing media reports, the Firenze Red Lions and Alpine Rams also received financial support. If that's right, it's half the league.

Then there's ownership. Joel Nagel founded the AFLE and is its owner and Chairman of the Board. Football-austria.com's study of company registers traces an indirect stake of around 58.8% in Rhein Fire's operating company to him. At Companies House, he's listed as the person with significant control of London Warriors Ltd. None of this is necessarily improper, but a chairman with stakes in competing teams needs clear, published rules.

Then there are the people on the ground. Douglas Fryer, whom the league listed as the Alpine Rams' offensive coordinator, has set out his side of things in a public post in a Facebook fans' group. He says he joined on a signed 24-month agreement that included compensation, visa and residency paperwork and health insurance. He says no visa process was completed for him, the insurance never came, and he left before the season began, though he was still named as offensive coordinator during games. He also says the rest of the original coaching staff left too, and that he and others are still owed money. That's one person's account and I haven't seen the club's response, but it's exactly the kind of question a well-run league should be able to answer.

The league's pages for Firenze, the Rams and the Lights list their current coaches and 2026 grounds, but I can't find any announcement of a head coach or venue for 2027 for any of the three.

The rescues kept the season going, and the new appointments are serious ones. But fans and players need more than headlines. They need stable finances, transparent ownership and clubs that know where they're playing next year. Fix the basics, and the rest can follow.