Obviously, hiring Norm Chow as the new head coach for the Guards was a priority for our management team. Now we had to start building a team from scratch. This had to be accomplished within the unique structure of the European League of Football (ELF).
Within the ELF there is a formula for each team’s roster to insure that the foundation of the team is built around “Home-grown” players. In other words the vast majority of your squad had to be athletes who first started playing football in your country.
Again, this is unusual. It means that you have to show where you first started playing football … not your passport declaration. Unlike other European leagues which allow dual passport players to have flexibility in their designations – the ELF had different mandates for eligibility.
The ELF had specific ways to structure the roster as well. For instance, each team was allowed to sign four players designated as A-tags (A player from either of four countries – the US, Canada, Mexico or Japan). In addition, you could add 6 E-tags (player from another country besides the A-Tag regions). The rest (about fifty) had to be from your country.
We now had to find a lot of players who started to play ball in Switzerland. Not an easy task since Switzerland is a country of about 8.7 million people – and football here is a niche sport that most guys don’t start playing until they are in the 16-17 year range.
Also, Switzerland is the smallest of the nine countries making up the ELF.
The nine countries which have franchises in the ELF population wise: Germany (83.2 Million), France (64.7M), Italy (58.7M), Spain (47.5M), Poland (41M), Czech Republic (10.4M), Hungary (10.1M), Austria (8.9M), Switzerland (8.7M)
The list of the teams for 2023 season.
- Hamburg Sea Devils (Germany)
- Frankfurt Galaxy (Germany)
- Cologne Centurions (Germany)
- Stuttgart Surge (Germany)
- Berlin Thunder (Germany)
- Munich Ravens (Germany)
- Rhein Fire (Germany)
- Vienna Vikings (Austria)
- Tirol Raiders (Austria)
- Barcelona Dragons (Spain)
- Wroclaw Panthers (Poland)
- Paris Musketeers (France)
- Prague Lions (Czech Republic)
- Helvetic Guards (Switzerland)
- Milano Seamen (Italy)
- Fehérár Enthroners (Hungary)
Istanbul (Turkey) played one season in 2022 and then dropped out of the league.
Leipzig Kings (Germany) dropped out of the league during the 2023 season.
Prague Lions suspended play for a week during the 2023 season.
Fortunately, I had a pretty good handle on many of the better players in the Swiss league (Swiss American Football Verband) since I had spent several years with the Thun Tigers located on the Thunersee in the Bernese Oberland.
But, it was going to be a pretty hard task regardless of my experience. First, we had to identify the players and then analyze their videos to assess their value to the team.
We decided that Norm and I (here in the US) along with JC and Matt (in Switzerland) would start to organize the team. Matt would also handle setting up the contracts so that we stayed within the salary cap the ELF had.
Matt’s job would be very stressful since our majority owner didn’t set a budget. Obviously, it would be helpful to know how much money Mukka was going to allot to the signing of players and how it should be structured.
But, like many things we would encounter along the way beginning til end …. there was little if any transparency when it came to the money. No one knew where it was going to come from and no one knew how much was there.
Plus, the fact that we were an ocean away – literally! Well, it was hard to get together.
Later Darius Willis joined our coaching/scouting department and his help was invaluable. Later we all agreed we could have never accomplished this without him.
So, Norm and I would start watching all kinds of highlight videos on Hudl (football app). Now, one thing you know as a coach – you need to see “game” videos to study a player. That we could only get our hands (or eyes I guess) on self-made highlights makes it hard.
Think about it … shouldn’t you look good on a highlight video you put together? If you don’t look good on your own highlight film. Yikes!
More to come!