A long break for clubs in France & results of forfeiture by the Templiers
[su_dropcap]I[/su_dropcap]t’s playoffstime in the France’s top league the “Championnat Elite.” After an exciting and competitive regular season, both semi-finals will be played on Saturday night:
- Flash of La Courneuve host the Molosses of Asnières-sur-Seine. Kickoff is at 7pm, with LIVE STREAM: https://flash.oniryk.com/
- Black Panthers of Thonon-les-Bains receive Dauphins de Nice. Kickoff is at 6pm, with LIVE STREAM: https://www.pantherstv.tv/
American Football International will be publishing previews for each of these games this week. Here are some headlines surrounding the French league heading into the playoffs.
LONG BREAK
Due to the break for the 2014 European Championships in Austria, the Molosses haven’t played a game in six weeks and the three others semi-finalists in five weeks! It is not easy to make predictions after such a long layoff. The winners will go the FFFA Elite French Championship game which will be played a week later, on Saturday June 28th, in the Paris stadium Charléty.
TEMPLIERS FORFEITURE, AVOID RELEGATION
Unfortunately, it looks like every year the French League can not finish peacefully without some administrative drama between the clubs and the Federation. The Templiers of Elancourt finished the regular season at the #2 spot and should have hosted a semi-final this weekend. Many people thought they could finally win their first Division 1 national championship. But since they used an ineligible player, they had to forfeit one game and dropped to #6 in the rankings. Not only did they lose their playoff berth but they had to play a relegation game to stay in Division 1 next year (win 24-13 vs Division 2 Spartiates of Amiens last weekend). Blame the Templiers or the Federation or both, but in the end the main loser is the league´s credibility.
Templiers will have a chance to save their season since they will participate in the Final Four of IFAF Europe Champions League. It is the inaugural season of this new European competition. The Final Four will be actually organized in Elancourt, which is 30 minutes southwest of Paris, from July 11th to 13th.
More information at : https://cl.ifafeurope.org/
