Which European League is Closest to the NFL?
As a fair comparison, no European gridiron football league even remotely approaches the commercial and cultural clout of the NFL. The gulf remains huge. The European League of Football was founded in 2021 and was, for a while, viewed as the continent’s best ever shot at growing the local popularity of the sport in a big way. However, the ELF collapsed in 2026 amid acrimony, drama and dispute – leaving a gap that has been filled by two competing leagues.
Despite this failure, Europe is still a big international market for the NFL and there is a solid community of American football fans across the Atlantic. Especially in Germany and the UK. But how close did the ELF actually come to a sustainable long-term operation, and what’s the future for professional American football fans in Europe?
The ELF Was the Biggest League Before Its Closure
When the European League of Football launched in 2021, hopes were high. Germany and the UK were increasingly a market for NFL teams, with several games a season being held in European mega stadiums to packed out crowds. The Euro Bowl, arguably the premier American football game in Europe, was last played in 2019.
The league copied the NFL’s core concepts, in a way not common in European sports or other previous domestic American football leagues. For example it had a franchise system, organized salary structure and conferences and divisions. Teams were even allowed to take on the mantle of franchise names from the decades defunct official collaboration NFL Europe.
ELF showed rapid initial growth. However, by 2025 internal disputes over revenue sharing agreements and governance took its toll and late in the year 11 of 16 teams quit to form their own new leagues. The American Football League Europe and the European Football Alliance and what remains of the ELF will now be competing for audiences and investment in 2026.
Germany is the Biggest Individual Market
The NFL Europe was popular in the 90s in Germany, and although the sport still has its fans it is nowhere near what it was in its heyday.
Perhaps due to the high number of US troops in bases in Germany, and the absence of a solid or popular base for the more European sport of rugby, NFL Europe teams and then German Football League teams regularly gathered 25,000+ attendances during this period. Strong NCAA Division 1 players from the US would sometimes even choose to take a college year in Germany, where they would be able to continue practicing and playing at a high a level, which further boosted the profile of the league.
Even during that peak however, it was far short of the 65,000-odd fans that pack into most regular season NFL games.
Today attendances have dropped off somewhat, and games can be incredibly one sided when involving top teams. Even the German Bowl championship game struggles to get over 20,000 attendees in the modern era. While the league and game has a strong local community, that has yet to transfer to widespread or huge commercial success.
The ELF also took some top German talent and teams, despite the GFL’s limited endorsement and ties with the operation, so when it folded last year the European scene was also hit hard. Nevertheless, the GFL continues to have strong grass roots support.
The UK is an Important NFL Market Internationally, but Domestic Interest is Limited
While the Brits’ gridiron league isn’t even quite as a big as Germany’s, the NFL still sees the UK as a big international market for its own games and teams. It hosts two games a season at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which usually sell out, and it will be doing so in 2026.
This international appeal of the NFL over local leagues can be seen in the way NFL teams have specific international markets that they bid for in the league. For example, the Arizona Cardinals have many marketing rights in Canada. This allows them to license things like sports betting partnerships in legal, regulated markets like Ontario and newly regulated Alberta.
In these markets, sites like Covers.com help players learn more about Alberta sports betting, and the various ways that combines with NFL betting – from tailored bonuses to advertising rules to the specifics of operators like payout speeds and regular rewards.
Despite the proximity of the NFL to Canadian audiences however, the Canadian Football League is actually far more popular than the GFL. Players are paid fully professionally, and matches average 20,000 attendance.
Two New Leagues Now Competing – EFA vs AFLE
Although there is still a desire and an impetus for European gridiron football to get closer to the NFL in terms of size and market, advocates and fans are currently facing an uphill battle.
The fragmented battle between the two leagues that rose from the ashes of the ELF is not expected to be good for the sport in the long run. A fragmented experience creates uncertainty for fans, teams, players, broadcasters, sponsors and just about everyone else in the game.
Even the ELF saw a 10% drop in viewership across the continent in 2024. So new leagues launching with new teams and a fragmented system will hardly help the matter. For now, despite its own struggles, it appears the GFL is still closest to the NFL in popularity and scale – and even that is a huge way off. So the likelihood is the NFL will remain the most popular gridiron football league for Europeans for some time to come.
