14 European leagues scheduled to start
With American football leagues in Portugal, Spain and France already underway another 14 European leagues are set to start by the end of April with the schedules for another 14 still pending.
Next up is Holland which kicks off February 17. This year the American Football Association of the Netherlands will be without its best team as the Amsterdam Crusaders will be playing their own, independent, international schedule.
Turkey launches its 2018 season on February 24 with the back-to-back champions, the Koc Rams, again in the driver’s seat with John Booker taking over as head coach. The Italian federation starts its season on March 3 with a 10 team league. The reigning champions, the Milano Seamen under new head coach Michael Wood still have to be the favorites although the Parma Panthers, Bolzano Giants and Bergamo Lions are definitely in the mix.
Belgium begins a week later, on March 11 as does the Irish American Football League. In Belgium, the Brussels Black Angels who have won two of the last three Belgian titles will again be a contender. The Dublin Rebels are back-to-back Irish title holders.
The Polish LFA, the breakaway league in Poland, launches on March 17 as does the eight-team Austrian Football League. In Poland, the LFA includes six of the eight teams from the previous Superliga including the defending champions, the Wroclaw Panthers and arch rivals, the Gdynia Seahawks.
The six-nation Monte Clark Cup will start March 17 involving teams from Belarus, Estonia, Lithunia, Russia, the Ukraine and Latvia.
The Hungarian Football League is up after that on March 24 with the Budapest Cowbells, 2017 champions and the Miskolc Steelers 2016 title holders as two of the favorites to win the eight-team league.
The Serbian American Football League kicks off a week later on March 31 and without the Novi Sad Dukes, two-time and back-to-back champions the Kragujevac Wild Boars along with SBB Vukovi Belgrade have to be considered favorites.
The four-team Bulgarian Football League also gets going March 31.
The Swedish Superserien launches April 7 and this year five teams will be vying for the title with the Carlstad Crusaders obvious heavy favorites.
The Central European Football League is scheduled to start on April 14 with the championship teams from five nations as well as the defending champions and Austrian runners up, meeting in two divisions. The Swarco Raiders, winners of the 2017 CEFL title and Austrian finalists will play again along with the title holders from Serbia (Kragujevac Wild Boars), Poland (Wroclaw Panthers), Czech Republic (Prague Black Panthers), Russia (Moscow Patriots) and Turkey (Koc Rams).
The Big4, Braunschweig New Yorker Lions, Frankfurt Universe, Amsterdam Crusaders and La Courneuve Flash will start play on April 14. The German Football League starts its 2018 season on April 21 with the defending champion Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns and the Braunschweig New Yorker Lions as two of the favorites.
The final schedules for Switzerland, EFL, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Ukraine, Romania, Poland (other league alternative aka PLFA), Russia, CEFL CUP and the NEFL are still pending.
