On Friday May 19, the European League of Football (ELF) will host its Season 3 Kick-Off Press Conference at the Castello Arena in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Among the usual promises of glitz and glamor that the ELF is offering with its marketing are two hugely significant events: the announcement of new franchises (plural) and the premier of an ELF documentary.
The first is something we’ve started to expect each year before kickoff, with the Fehérvár Enthroners, Helvetic Guards and Milano Seamen all being announced just before the 2022 season last year, and the Prague Lions and Paris Musketeers being announced during the championship game.
These announcements are highly anticipated – a fact not lost on the ELF marketing team – and stir up plenty of speculation (something the AFI team covered in the recent Cover 7 podcast). Whoever those teams-to-be are for the 2024 season have done an excellent job of keeping their lips sealed as little to no rumors have emerged.
One of the most obvious and iconic cities would be London. Despite a pretty rudimentary league that doesn’t even have a professional structure, the size and marketing opportunities seem hard to ignore. And with Germany allegedly being off the market, other cities that already have a semi-professional league of their own and could feasibly host an ELF team like Amsterdam, Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen all seem to be serious contenders.
The second significant promise is an ELF documentary. What this consists of is anyone’s guess. There is no doubt that they were heavily inspired by the Unicorns documentary UNICORN TOWN, created by former player Nick Alfieri and produced by NFL running back Christian McCaffery. Similarly, the ELF documentary will likely follow the story of a team/teams from the 2022 season. The ELF has an outstanding media team who have created pro league-like content year round and will certainly be tasked with much of the production which should make for an exciting spectacle.