And then there were none – German Football League officially cancelled

After being reduced from 16 to six teams in early July, the German Football League, GFL, arguably the best American football league outside of North America, Japan and Mexico, has officially decided to cancel the 2020 season.

After a meeting with the remaining six GFL teams – the Dresden Monarchs, Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, Munich Cowboys, Marburg Mercenaries, Potsdam Royals and Berlin Rebels – who had expressed an interest in having some form of shortened season this fall, the GFL announced that five of these teams voted to abstain from participating.

The main reasons given by the teams for deciding not to play were that ultimately the health regulations and restrictions imposed in the various federal states in Germany currently could not allow nationwide practice at full team strength and games could not be held with a sufficient number of spectators.

With COVID-19 cases on the rise again in Germany, club representatives were not optimistic that easing of restrictions would be possible over the next few weeks. As a result, it will not be possible to generate the necessary ticket revenue to cover the costs of game operations.

The clubs did discuss the possibility of having a cup competition over a weekend in order to at least be able to play some football games.

The eight remaining GFL2, German second division teams were in favor of playing this year and schedules will be drawn up for creating two groups, north and south.