The European League of Football has announced that a total of 16 teams from nine nations will kick off the 2025 season.
The league has added the Nordic Storm from Denmark but lost Italy’s Milano Seamen who will be on a one-year hiatus, and also lost the Barcelona Dragons, whose future is unknown at this point. With that, the field of participants has been reduced by one, from 17 to 16.
ELF Managing Director Zeljko Karajica:
“The ELF has grown rapidly since it was founded four years ago, but it is still a young league. In a franchise system, it is completely normal and not surprising that locations develop differently. Many different factors play a role. Our goal of 24 teams in the final expansion stage will not change. Our primary goal is to provide fans with a product that is attractive in every respect and to offer a competitive league. That is why, in addition to expansion, the qualitative component of the teams is increasingly coming to the fore. We learned that from the past season.”
ELF Commissioner Patrick Esume
“Of course it is a shame that things are not continuing in Barcelona. But a certain amount of fluctuation is part of it. Only two founding members still play in the NFL, both under different names. Countless teams have disappeared from the scene over time, while others have joined. Achieving stability in the field of participants is an unavoidable process that we have taken into account from the start.”
While there are currently no future plans for the Barcelona Dragons to return to the European League of Football, work is already underway in Milan on the Seamen’s return.
Paolo Mutti, President and co-owner of the Milano Seamen:
“We believe in the success of the ELF and will return in 2026 with a changed ownership group that will create both the economic and infrastructural conditions to form a stronger and more competitive team from Italy.”
In May, the 2025 ELF season will kick off with the defending champion Rhein Fire along with the Berlin Thunder, Hamburg Sea Devils, Munich Ravens, Frankfurt Galaxy, Cologne Centurions and Stuttgart Surge, all from Germany, set to compete with Austria’s Vienna Vikings and Raiders Tirol, the Madrid Bravos from Spain, Poland’s Wroclaw Panthers, the Prague Lions from the Czech Republic, the Fehérvár Enthroners from Hungary, the Helvetic Mercenaries from Switzerland, the Paris Musketeers from France and the newest addition, the Nordic Storm from Denmark.