German Football League

The German Football League (GFL) is the elite league for American football in Germany. Playing rules are based on those of the American NCAA.

In 1999, the league, previously called the American Football Bundesliga and formed in 1979, adopted the name German Football League.^[1]

League set-up

The GFL is partitioned into north and south conferences, each with seven teams. In each conference, every team plays against every other team of its own conference, both at home and away. Each team also plays home and away interconference games against the team from the opposing conference that finished the previous season on the same rank. After the end of the regular season, four teams from both conferences enter the playoffs, to determine the German championship. The winner of a conference plays against the 4th place team of the other group, second against third of the other conference. The final is called the German Bowl. The lowest ranked team of each conference plays against the winner of the second division, and may be relegated if they lose.

The league has been expanded from 12 to 14 teams for the 2011 season. It is planned to further increase the number of teams to 16 in 2012.^[2]

Below the GFL sits the GFL 2, formerly the 2nd Bundesliga, which was formed in 1982.^[3] It is also divided into a northern and southern division, with eight teams in each. For the 2011 season, both the northern and the southern champions are promoted, while the runners-up of the two divisions will play the last placed team in the GFL division above for another spot in the league in 2012.^[2]

For most of its history, the GFL has been divided into a northern and southern division. Only in 1979 was it played in single division format, while, from 1986 to 1990, it was divided into four regional divisions.

As of 2010, the Munich Cowboys have played more GFL games than any other team, 335, followed by the Berlin Adler with 312, the only other team with more than 300 league games. The Cowboys have played 29 out of a possible 32 seasons at the highest level of the game in Germany, more than any other club.^[4]

History

Early years

The history of American football in Germany, outside the US Army bases in the country, began in 1977, when the Frankfurter Löwen were formed as the first club to play the game in Germany. At first, this team was only able to play US Army teams, lacking German opposition.^[1] In March 1979, the AFBD, the American Football Federation of Germany (German: American Football Bund Deutschland), was formed, the first of its kind in Europe. This organisation, in 1982, was replaced by the AFVD, the American Football Association of Germany (German: American Football Verband Deutschland).^[5]

In 1979, the American Football Bundesliga, later to be renamed the German Football League,^[6] was formed, consisting of six clubs, the Frankfurter Löwen, Ansbach Grizzlies, Düsseldorf Panther, Munich Cowboys, Berlin Bears and Bremerhaven Seahawks.^[1] Of those six, the top two teams would contest the first ever German Bowl on 10 November 1979.^[3] The first-ever league game was held on 4 August 1979, played between the Frankfurter Löwen and the Düsseldorf Panther, and ended in a victory for Frankfurt.^[5]

The league saw a split in its second and third season, with Düsseldorf and Bremerhaven leaving the competition to take part in a separate, short-lived competition, the Nordwestdeutsche Football-Liga – NFL.^[7] By 1981, the Bundesliga was expanded to two regional divisions of seven clubs each.^[3] The early years of the league were dominated by two teams, Frankfurt and Ansbach, who met each other in the first three editions of the German Bowl. Of those, Frankfurt won the first two, remaining unbeaten in 1979, and Ansbach the last. The era of the Frankfurter Löwen was hereby ended and the club went defunct in the mid-1980s, while the Ansbach Grizzlies continued to be an outstanding team, playing in all of the first eight German Bowls.^[8] Unlike the first season, play-off semi finals were played in 1980 and 1981 to determine the two German Bowl contestants. From 1982, the play-offs were enlarged to include a quarter final round as well.^[3]

Ansbach vs Düsseldorf era

The 1982 season, which saw Ansbach repeat its title, remaining unbeaten all season, this time against the Cologne Crocodiles, saw an increase of clubs to fifteen, including the two break-away clubs Düsseldorf and Bremerhaven.^[3] After that, the era of the Düsseldorf Panther versus Ansbach Grizzlies rivalry began, with the two teams meeting in the next four finals. Of those, the team from Düsseldorf won the 1983, 1984 and 1986 editions, while the Grizzlies earned their third championship in 1985. With the Panthers in 1983 and 1986 and the Grizzlies in 1985, both teams were able to win the title without a loss all season. With the 1986 final, the golden era of the Ansbach Grizzlies ended and the club disappeared out of the top level all together by 1991.^[8]

League expansion 1986 to 1990

From 1986, a wild card round was introduced in the play-offs, taking the number of teams in the play-offs to twelve. The league had now expanded to 24 teams, divided into four divisions. Two of those were in the north, one in the south and the fourth one in Central Germany.^[3]

The 1987 German Bowl saw two completely new teams compete against each other, the Badener Greifs making their only appearance in the championship game to date, while the Berlin Adler won their first of, as of 2010, six national championships. Both teams went into the German Bowl without a defeat all season. In 1988, Red Barons Cologne defeated the Düsseldorf Panther in the final, while, from 1989 onwards, the Berlin Adler became the first team to win three championships in a row, all against teams from Cologne. The Adler also managed to remain unbeaten in 1989 and 1990 and only suffered one defeat in 1991, at home against the Cologne Crocodiles.^[8] After the 1990 season, the play-offs were reduced to eight teams again, dropping the wild card round, a system still in place as of 2010. The league, which had peaked at 26 clubs in four regional divisions in 1990, was reduced to the two-divisional format, with eight teams per division.^[3]

Düsseldorf Panther era

The Panther earned their fourth title in 1992, defeating the Munich Cowboys, which, in the following year, won the championship themselves, against Cologne Crocodiles, who suffered their fourth defeat in their fourth German Bowl. Munichs title in an undefeated 1993 season was to be the last occasion for the next twelve years that a team from the South would reach the final, and the last time until 2011, that a team from the South would win the championship. The Bundesliga and the German Bowl were from now on dominated by the North.^[8] After the 1993 season, still contested with 16 clubs, the number of clubs was gradually reduced further. In 1994, 14 clubs in two divisions of seven competed in the league, from 1995, the division strength was reduced to six. For the next 16 seasons, six teams per division was the set number, with occasional seasons going underway in reduced strength because of late withdrawals. Also, an inter conference round was introduced in 1994, with teams from different divisions now meeting for the first time during the regular season.^[3]

In 1994 and 1995, the Düsseldorf Panther once more won the German Bowl, with the second title won against a new force in the game in Germany, the Hamburg Blue Devils. In 1996, the Blue Devils then reversed the fortunes and defeated the Panthers in the final.^[8]

Braunschweig Lions vs Hamburg Blue Devils era

The most dominant era of any team in German football begun in 1997, when the Braunschweig Lions reached and won the German Bowl for the first time. The Lions would play in every one of the next twelve German Bowls, up until 2008, and win seven of those. Their first title, in 1997, was won against the Cologne Crocodiles, who were now five out five in German Bowl defeats. The following six seasons, the final was contested by the Lions and the Blue Devils on five occasions, with the Lions winning in 1998 and 1999, while the Blue Devils won 2001, 2002 and 2003. Only in 2000 did neither of those two win the Bowl, instead, the Cologne Crocodiles finally reversed their fortunes and won a championship in their sixth attempt.^[8] In between, in 1999, the Bundesliga was renamed to German Football League.^[1] In 2002, the league also lost its longest-serving founding member, the Munich Cowboys suffering relegation for the first time, alongside another one of the "original six", the Düsseldorf Panther, who had however missed the 1980 and 1981 seasons because of the league split.^[3]

Braunschweig lost a fifth final in a row in 2004, when the Berlin Adler won their first title in 13 years. After this, the Braunschweig Lions set a new record, winning four German Bowls straight, beating four different teams in the finals. In 2005, the Blue Devils were once more the opposition, followed by two southern teams, the Marburg Mercenaries in 2006 and the Stuttgart Scorpions in 2007, in an unbeaten season for the Lions. The last title for the Lions came in 2008, against the new force of the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes.^[8]

Current

Kiel also played in the 2009 final, losing to the Berlin Adler, before finally being successful in 2010 and winning their first title against the same team.^[8]

In 2011, the league season has been expanded from 72 to 98 games because of the enlargement of the league. It also saw the end of an 18-year title draught for the south, when the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns defeted Kiel 48-44 to take out the national championship for the first time.^[9][10]

North-South disparity

Success in American football in Germany and at the German Bowl differs hugely between the clubs from the northern and the southern division, with the south only winning seven German Bowls and the north the remaining 26. Similar, southern clubs have only made 17 appearances in the Bowl, while northern clubs have appeared 49 times. After the first three German Bowls, the final was never again contested by two southern clubs. Since the end of the golden era of the Ansbach Grizzlies in 1986, southern clubs have only made six appearances in the championship game and suffered a championship draught from 1993 to 2011.^[8]

Restrictions on foreign players

As a sign of the strong influence of Americans in the game in Germany, upon formation of the Bundesliga in 1979, there was no restriction on how many foreigners a team could field. The only stipulation was, that every team had to field a minimum of three German nationals at any time. Soon, this changed, and the allowed number of foreigners on the field for a team at any given time, in this case specifically, Americans, was reduced to five.^[5]

In 1982, this number was reduced to four, in 1983 to three and, by 1986, only two were allowed on the field for a team at any given time.^[5]

In November 2010, a new Bundesspielordnung, the rule book of American football in Germany, was published. One major change was that the sport now placed citizens of European Union countries on equal footing with German nationals, meaning, restrictions on the number of these players per team on the field were now not in place anymore. However, the restrictions on non-EU nationals remained in place, unless those players could prove that they had spent at least three years playing for a youth team in the sport in Germany.^[11]

For the 2011 season, a club can sign up up to ten non-EU players, have six of those on the line-up for any given game but only two of those on the field at any given time. These restrictions are specifically in place for US, Canadian, Mexican and Japanese citizens and, on request, exemptions can be made for players from countries without established structures in the sport. This rule is designed to prevent an advantage to the wealthier clubs, who could otherwise recruit a large number of players from the traditional American football countries.^[12]

GFL Teams in 2011

GFL North

GFL South

German Bowls

German Bowl participants since 1979:^[8]

^† Bold denotes German Bowl victory

* Known as the "Braunschweig Lions" from 1987 to 2010

GFL season placings

The placings in the league since the renaming of the league to GFL after the 1999 season:^{[3][13][14][15]}

• In 2000, the northern division consisted of only five clubs.
• In 2005 and 2006, the southern division consisted of only five clubs.

Divisional champions

This is a list of the winners of the regional divisions of the GFL. A record nine divisional titles were won by the Berlin Adler and Düsseldorf Panther each, while the Ansbach Grizzlies still hold the record for division titles in the south, seven, despite not having competed in the league for twenty years:^[3]

European Football League participation

Since the inception of the Eurobowl in 1986, German clubs have taken part in the competition in most seasons. In most cases, the German Bowl winner of the previous season was qualified. In some seasons more than one German club took part in the competition. On seven occasions clubs from Germany have won the Eurobowl. The participations of German clubs at the European Football League:^[16]

• Qual. = Qualifying round
• QF = Quarter finals
• SF = Semi finals
• EB = European Bowl

References

External links

• (German) German Football League official website
• (German) German American Football Association website
• (German) Football History Historic American football tables from Germany