Groupings/dates set for 2020 IFAF European championships
The International Federation of American Football, IFAF, has set the groupings for the final stages of the 2020 European Championships with the final four nations scheduled to battle for the title.
The first round of the 2020 tournament takes place on the weekend of August 1 with teams bidding for the home games.
The defending champions, Team France, are grouped together with the winners of the Group A divisions – Italy, Finland and Sweden – in now what is known as the Top Group.
The second-place finishers in each group – Austria, Serbia, Great Britain and Denmark – will face each other in a Mid Group round robin tournament that will determine the 5th to 8th positions while teams that ended up in third in each group – the Czech Republic, Russia, Switzerland and the Netherlands – will have their own separate tournament to decide spots 9-12 in the Bottom Group.
Check out the AFI Top 22 European nations.
Road to the finals
To reach the Final Four, Team France downed Serbia 13-7 and the Czech Republic 28-3. The Italian national team was the surprise winner of Group B beating Austria, the 2018 European silver medalist, 21-14 and then blanking the Swiss 38-0. Finland easily won Group C with a 55-0 shut out of the Netherlands and 44-7 win over Denmark. Sweden took care of Russia by a 34-7 score and then handled Great Britain’s national team, beating them 36-14.
| Date | Division | Game | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 9, 2019 | A | France-Serbia | 13-7 |
| October 13, 2019 | A | Fraance-Czech Republic | 28-3 |
| October 26, 2019 | A | Servia-Czech Republic | 16-0 |
| September 21, 2019 | B | Austria-Switzerland | 66-0 |
| October 6, 2019 | B | Italy-Austria | 21-14 |
| October 20, 2019 | B | Italy-Switzerland | 38-0 |
| October 12, 2019 | C | Finland-Netherlands | 55-0 |
| October 19, 2019 | C | Denmark-Netherlands | 22-19 |
| October 26, 2019 | C | Finland-Denmark | 44-3 |
| October 5, 2019 | D | Sweden-Russia | 34-7 |
| October 19, 2019 | D | Great Britain-Russia | 34-0 |
| November 5, 2019 | D | Sweden-Great Britain | 36-14 |
As illustrated below, the winners of the first two games in each group will face off in the final game in October.
