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Nailbiter until the last minute

The climax is still to come, but after 106 of 107 games, the time is already ripe for an initial conclusion to the 2024 season in the European League of Football. Managing Director Zeljko Karajica and Commissioner Patrick Esume look back at the championship game next Sunday (kick-off: 3:30 p.m.) in the Veltins Arena of FC Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen between the Vienna Vikings and the defending champions Rhein Fire – and look ahead to the final.

“We are still at the beginning with our league, but we have again set some milestones in the past year. The most important step was certainly that we were able to play more games in large stadiums and thus increase attention. This is our way of making this sport and the ELF a mass magnet. Despite great competition from the European Football Championship in Germany and the Olympic Games in Paris, we had half a million spectators at our games. “A number of well-known partners have joined, which shows that we are perceived as a league that is worth working with,” says ELF Managing Director Zeljko Karajica.

“I have been involved in European football for decades and I am really surprised at how the level of our players has continued to improve since the ELF was founded. And of course everything else has improved with it. It is incredible to see how good the European guys have become.” If you had an import from the USA a few years ago who played in Division I, then he was a superstar, so you could hardly tell the difference between him and the strongest players from Europe. “They have definitely improved again, a big compliment to the franchises. That is the recipe for getting the horsepower on the road in our league,” says ELF commissioner Patrick Esume.

“Anyone who wants a perfect mix of competitive sport and a folk festival should come to Gelsenkirchen on Sunday and not miss this event. It will be a record game for the league, we will certainly have more than 40,000 people in the Veltins Arena. It will be a football festival with a great setting. At the Power Party before the final, there will be so much to experience for the whole family on an area of 30,000 square meters,” says Karajica.

“The two best teams in Europe face each other on Sunday. I also have to give a big compliment to the Musketeers and Surge, who played a great season and demanded everything from them in the semi-finals. I couldn’t believe what happened, how unbelievable it was. In the NFL, you would have said that the commissioner couldn’t script it any better, in this game there are no favorites, both teams are very strong and incredibly well coached.” “It will be a nailbiter that will only be decided in the last minute,” says Esume.

Schlüter – 16.09.2024

Zeljko Karajica and Patrick Esume