The Sportklub Central European Football League will return in 2022 with a total of 13 teams vying for the chance to play and win CEFL Bowl XVI.
The caliber of the CEFL will again be excellent with a total of nine national champions among the 13 competing teams as well as the defending title holders, the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns.
The participants are (alphabetically):
Badalona Dracs: Spanish champions
SBB Belgrade Vukovi: Serbian champions
Budapest Wolves: Hungarian champions
Calanda Broncos: Swiss champions
Copenhagen Towers: Danish champions
Danube Dragons: Austrian semifinalists
Flash de La Courneuve: 11-time French champions
LG OLED Las Rozas Black Demons: Spanish runner ups
Moscow Spartans: Russian champions
Örebro Black Knights: Swedish champions
Parma Panthers: Italian champions
Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns: CEFL Bowl XV champions and German Football League runner ups
Thonon Black Panthers: 2019 French champions
With only four weekends available for play, a cup tournament format will be used with three seeded teams skipping the first round. The other teams are matched up regionally in single-round knockout games.
First round, April 23
The seeded teams are the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, Calanda Broncos and Parma Panthers. The remaining teams will be paired up as follows:
Copenhagen Towers – Örebro Black Knights
Thonon Black Panthers – LG OLED Las Rozas Black Demons
Badalona Dracs – Flash de La Courneuve
Belgrade SBB Vukovi – Danube Dragons Vienna
Budapest Wolves – Moscow Spartans
In the second round, three winners of the first-round games will travel to play the seeded teams and two first-round winners will play each other.
Second round, May 14
Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns – Copenhagen Towers/Örebro Black Knights
Calanda Broncos – Budapest Wolves/Moscow Spartans
Parma Panthers – Belgrade SBB Vukovi/Danube Dragons Vienna
Thonon Black Panthers/LG OLED Las Rozas Black Demons – Badalona Dracs/Flash de La Courneuve
Hosting priority for the last game will be in the following order: Thonon Black Panthers, Badalona Dracs, LG OLED Las Rozas Black Demons, Flash de La Courneuve.
The semifinals are scheduled for June 4 with CEFL Bowl XVI set to be played on June 25.