As the European League of Football (ELF) announced today, Wednesday, 16 teams from Europe will be competing in the upcoming 2025 season. The Raiders Tirol are also there, Barcelona Dragons are out and Milano Seamen are taking a break. New Nordic Storm from the Danish capital Copenhagen.
INNSBRUCK. In the last European League of Football season, a total of 17 teams fought to emerge as winners. As the ELF announced, there will be changes in the 2025 season. Two teams will no longer be there. A new team is making its ELF debut.
16 teams in the ELF 2025
The founding member of the ELF, the Barcelona Dragonswill leave the ELF. You were one of the eight founding members in 2020/21. Another team that will be missing are the Milan Seamen from Italy. However, they do not want to withdraw completely from the ELF. They are already planning a comeback in the 2026 season. By then there should be a changed ownership group. Furthermore, the economic and infrastructural conditions should be created for a stronger and more competitive team, says Paolo Mutti, president and co-owner of Milano Seamen.
“Of course it’s a shame that things can’t continue in Barcelona. But there is a certain amount of fluctuation involved. Achieving stability in the field of participants is an inevitable process that we took into account from the beginning.” (ELF Commissioner Patrick Esume)
With the Nordic Storm from Denmark, the field of participants for 2025 is complete.
New to the ELF: Nordic Storm
Nordic Storm is an American football team from the Danish capital Copenhagen. It will take part in the European League of Football for the first time in the 2025 season. Their team colors are dark blue, light blue and white. The head coach for two years is John Shoop, who first worked for Rhein Fire – the ELF champions of 2023 and 2024. The Danes were also able to secure two important players from Rhein Fire: quarterback Jadrian Clark and running back Glen Toonga.
Die ELF-Teams 2025
Out of Austria there are two teams again:
- Rider Tirol
- Vienna Vikings
Out of Deutschland seven teams are represented:
- Rhein Fire
- Berlin Thunder,
- Hamburg Sea Devils,
- Munich Ravens,
- Frankfurt Galaxy,
- Cologne Centurions
- Stuttgart Surge
More teams for the ELF 2025
- Madrid Bravos (Spain)
- Panthers Wroclaw (Polen)
- Prague Lions (Czech Republic)
- Fehérvár Enthroners (Hungary)
- Helvetic Mercenaries (Schweiz)
- Paris Musketeers (France)
The ELF’s goal is 24 teams
The European League of Football was founded in 2020 and started with eight teams from three countries. When it was founded, the goal was that 24 teams from 15 European countries should take part in the ELF in the medium term.
“The ELF has grown rapidly since it was founded four years ago, but is still a young league. There is no change to our goal of 24 teams in the final expansion stage.” (ELF managing director Zeljko Karajica)
Already in the season 2022 The ELF grew to 12 teams from five countries. The two Austrian teams Vienna Vikings and Raiders Tirol were new additions. In each of the next two seasons, 17 teams fought for a place in the final. However, the Leipzig Kings withdrew during the season 2023 back after 5 games. In season 2024 There were more problems with the Barcelona Dragons. In addition, the Helvetic Guards from Switzerland were no longer there. They were followed by the Helvetic Mercenaries.
After the various problems of previous seasons, more emphasis should be placed on the quality of the teams in the future.
“Our main goal is to offer fans a product that is attractive in every respect and to offer a competitive league. That’s why, in addition to expansion, we are increasingly focusing on the quality of the teams. We learned that from last season.” (Zeljko Karajica)
More on the topic
Current news about the Raiders Tirol
Rules for beginners – What you need to know for ELF and NFL
That’s how big the coaching staff is in American football
