Opinion AFLE
AFLE v EFA: off-season, round one
This week's news in European American football has come from the AFLE, and I think we are watching a clash between two ideas of how a league should be run.
For fans of European American football, this week has been interesting, to say the least. And all the news about it has been initiated by the AFLE.
The Firenze Red Lions are no longer in for the 2027 season. Hamburg have been resurrected. After a teaser on the AFLE's X account, Nordic Storm announced they intend to play in the AFLE, and the league said much the same shortly afterwards, subject to contractual steps. The EFA said Storm are still a member, those agreements still bind them, and it reserves its rights.
I think it will go the other way. For me this is a clash of cultures: the EFA trying to build slowly, with more financial caution and less control from the centre, against the AFLE's more American franchise model, which is what their dismissal of the Lions looks like to me.
So these are really the opening shots of a season that will determine the future of American football in Europe.