Munich, Germany becomes latest city to join the European League of Football

The European League of Football has announced that the city of Munich, Germany will join Milan, Italy, Fehervar, Hungary and Zurich, Switzerland in 2023 as the newest members of the two-year old league bringing the total number of franchises to 16.

According to ELF President Zeljko Karajica, Munich will be the last German franchise at this time:

“On the Germany map, this closes the circle for us. Munich is a city with a great football tradition and many enthusiastic fans. We are very pleased to be able to offer them a team in the European League of Football. This completes the expansion with German franchises for the time being.”

The ELF originally had eight teams – the Berlin Thunder, Hamburg Sea Devils, Frankfurt Galaxy, Cologne Centurions, Stuttgart Surge and Leipzig Kings all from Germany, the Wroclaw Panthers (Poland) and the Barcelona Dragons (Spain) – and added four this season, the Vienna Vikings and Tirol Raiders from Austria, Istanbul Rams from Turkey and the Rhein Fire from Germany.

The addition of Munich gives the league a total of eight teams in Germany.

Commissioner Patrick Esume is also happy about the latest addition:

“We have found strong partners in Munich who will add further stability to our league and are also very ambitious to form a powerful team. For us, this is an important signal both internally and externally.”

According to Karajica, the goal is to have a 24 team league spanning all over Europe:

“We have set ourselves the goal of playing with 24 teams in the coming years. It is important to emphasize that we are a European league. The majority of teams will come from foreign countries.”