IFAF Europe 2016 Qualifying Tournaments Now Set

With the conclusion of the IFAF Europe Group B qualifying rounds, the IFAF Europe Competition Committee has announced the structure of the European Championship 2016 Qualifying Tournaments system.

The eight national teams will be divided in two groups, with each team playing two scheduled games – a semifinal game and then a placement game.

Structure of the qualifying tournaments and system of play:

Qualifying Tournament 1 [QT1]

Qualifying Tournament 2 [QT2]

Each participating team will play two games, one semifinal game and one placement game. Semifinals matchups will be:

QT1: Italy v. Israel and Serbia v. Switzerland
QT2: Great Britain v. Russia and Czech Republic v. Netherlands

The third place games (placement games) will be played between the teams that lose the semifinal games and first place games will be played between the winners of the semifinal games in each qualifying tournament.

The winners of each qualifying tournament will advance to the European Championship 2017 qualifying round to play Sweden and Denmark for the two spots in the European Championship 2018 final tournament.

Italy and Great Britain as best ranked teams have the provisional hosting rights to organize the 2016 qualifying tournaments. IFAF Europe will award the right to host and organize the qualifying tournaments in December 2015.

Available dates for the organization of qualifying tournaments are the last weekend in August and the first two weekends in September 2016. The dates of the two qualifying tournaments will not overlap.

See more at the IFAF Europe website.

John McKeon is a former professional and collegiate American Football player and coach now living and working in New York. His goal is to spread news, information, and opinion on the global growth of the sport he loves.