Kembowski, dpa
Ingolstadt Praetorians
Although initially announced, Ingolstadt and Hildesheim / Hanover are out, but suddenly teams from Leipzig and Cologne are here who just have a name and a head coach. There is also a Berlin franchise, although negotiations with a group of interested parties there had failed. So much to (er) clarify – except for dry, meaningless press releases from the supposedly professional league and otherwise iron silence, nothing could be heard from those responsible.
That has now changed slightly: The league commissioner Patrick Esume, known from TV, interviewed league managing director Zeljko Karajica (former ProSiebenSat. 1 manager and DSF boss) for a YouTube video. An important finding: The European League of Football (ELF) is firmly assuming a start with eight teams on June 20 and apparently does not shy away from any conflict with the established football structures in order to start its commercial league operations. “Many do not yet understand,” said Esume, “we are not a league of an association, but a league of commercial enterprises.” That is why it is completely okay, “as in any other business area, not to get deals.” What was meant was the negotiations with the people of Hildesheim and Ingolstadt, who had withdrawn their local football teams from the top German league GFL1 as a precaution and are now facing a new start in terms of sport, some also say heaps of broken glass. While the Lower Saxony liquidated their ELF-GmbH, the Ingolstadt shareholders hope – as reported – for inclusion in 2022.
Esume said that “good solutions were found” at the two locations, “by mutual agreement and respectful interaction”. Ultimately, however, the ELF had a much longer lever, as Karajica’s words also make clear. “We don’t have that much time to negotiate and talk again and again,” said the ELF managing director. “And sometimes you realize that it won’t work that way.” It can be assumed that it was primarily a question of the financial basis – experts have repeatedly cited a franchise fee of 750,000 euros – and marketing rights – and marketing rights. They had promised to start with eight teams in June, emphasized Karajica, “and we will” – only with other locations.
Instead of the Ingolstadt Praetorians, the old NFL Europe name Cologne Centurions is now being revived (and fullback Chris Ezeala will change from the Danube to the Rhine in the league’s first transfer). The Kings should compete in Leipzig – both franchises pure headbirths of the league leaders. On site, the cadres now have to be filled with locals from existing clubs, as there is no substructure of their own. The expected poaching will result in massive dislocations in Cologne, for example. The traditional club Cologne Crocodiles (GFL1) reacted irritably to attempts to poach them and already announced public resistance in a club announcement. The club’s chairman, ironically, is Jan Stecker – TV colleague Esumes in the very successful NFL show of the ProSieben family of channels. DK
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