Guelfi Firenze are in. So who is paying?

Florence will still have an AFLE team in 2027, just not the one it had this year. On 4 November the league announced that Guelfi Firenze, the reigning Italian champions, are joining, and the Firenze Red Lions are gone. Guelfi will stay in the Italian Football League as well and play the AFLE alongside it.

Back in March, when the Red Lions arrived in purple and red with a lion on the badge, Guelfi put out a statement saying they had no connection with a new organisation "using the name of the city of Florence". Their identity, they said, was built on official competitions, seasons played and trophies won, and they would keep working within the institutional framework of American football in Italy and Europe. Eight months later the Red Lions are gone and Guelfi have the Florence place.

The Red Lions are not happy. Their statement says they were told by phone, with no explanation, and found out from other people that the league was talking to another Florence club. They make a point of the "significant financial investment" they put in. The AFLE thanks their owner, Bart Iaccarino, and gives no reason at all.

On paper Guelfi look a better-rooted club. They have been going since 2000, they have regional sponsors in Estra, the energy company, and Toscana Aeroporti, and they run the council-owned ground at San Bartolo a Cintoia with three rugby clubs. Their general manager, Edoardo Cammi, is also one of the founders of the Italian league, so he knows how a league is run from the inside.

So who is paying? The league's announcement says nothing about a budget, a backer or where the AFLE home games will be played. The club turned over about €583,000 in 2024. An AFLE season means flights and hotels across Europe on top of a full Italian season, and I would think it needs a good deal more than that, unless there is money nobody has mentioned yet. The ground is small too. The stand was built for about 750, and the Red Lions moved their last five home games to the 3,800-seat Stadio Gino Bozzi. Then there is the calendar. This year the Italian season ran from late February to the end of May, and the AFLE kicked off on 23 May, so even with an AFLE season straight after the Italian one there is little or no break between the two. Huddle Magazine suggests Guelfi might split into a European squad and a domestic one, as the Vienna Vikings have done, which would get round that, but nobody has confirmed it.

None of this means Guelfi can't do it. It just means the most important part hasn't been said out loud, and after the year European football has had, money is the first thing I want to hear about.