European American Football Championships officially postponed
According to a statement from IFAF Europe CA both on the EFAF website and on the German American Football Federation, AFVD, website, the European Championship tournament scheduled for 2018, has officially been postponed.
On January 8, 2018 after evaluating the international situation in American Football worldwide and due to various organizational issues associated with this situation the IFAF Europe CA Board in conjunction with the Local Organizing Committee of the European Championships A-Group Final Tournament has decided that they have no option but to postpone the Final Tournament
A new date will be announced at a later time.
See the original statement in German here.
This announcement from Jan. 8, should not come as a surprise to most. The international American football scene has been plagued by strife for the past two years with two warring sides, IFAF Paris and IFAF New York, in a showdown to decide which is the official ruling body for the sport.
A partial ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS, in September, basically removing Tommy Wiking (IFAF Paris) from the presidency and invalidating all his actions since 2015, fell short of naming either side as the official body.
The four teams that had been scheduled to play in the 2018 European Championships – Germany, France, Austria and Italy – had been set to play at the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt, Germany.
Apparently, there was a question as to whether the tournament could be recognized as a legitimate European championship. Italy had won one qualifying round while Great Britain won the other.
The two teams would have then played a final qualifier against Denmark and Sweden who finished fifth and sixth at the 2014 European Championships. The top four teams from that tournament – Germany, Austria, France and Finland – had already automatically qualified for the 2018 tournament. But the political issues arising from the IFAF split prevented the final qualifying games.
Meanwhile, the international American football community awaits the final CAS decision.
