Football: Rhine Fire Düsseldorf cooperates with NFL – News

Rhein Fire is the first European team to cooperate with the NFL

“This is great news, which of course has a positive effect on our entire league. What is good for one of our teams is good for them.” ELEVEN“said the Commissioner of the European League Football Patrick Esume. The cooperation between Rhein Fire and the Seattle Seahawks is primarily a marketing one. The Seahawks will be at all of Rhein Fire’s games in order to make their own brand better known, and the Düsseldorf team hopes that the shine of the NFL radiates onto them.

The two franchises want to offer flag football camps and tournaments for children and young people and thus ensure young talent, explains Isabelle Van Coevorden, international director of the Seattle Seahawks: “We share the same values. We are closely connected to our fans and our cities and we both want football to grow. I think this partnership is so special because both teams are doing so much to grow American football here in Germany.”

American football is booming in Germany

In fact, American football has experienced a real boom in Europe and especially in Germany in recent years. Germany is the most important market for the Americans NFLthe world’s highest-grossing sports league. It has been working strategically for several years to develop itself more globally. NFL run in Germany in free TV and the NFL has played regular league games in Germany in front of large audiences and will continue to do so.

Second most popular television sport

According to an analysis by AGF Video Research, American football ranks second among the most popular television sports in Germany with 33.8 percent, behind football (84.8) in the advertising-relevant target group between 19 and 49 years. Economist Tim Ströbel says: “American football has arrived in Germany. This is not just a short-lived phenomenon. The sport is well known and many people understand the rules. Especially thanks to the commitment of the NFL.”

Because the rules are better known, the games are also more likely to be followed, says Ströbel. He sees two other factors that could contribute to the NFL can appeal especially to younger audiences, on the one hand the entertainment factor: “Unlike in European football, where fans reject show elements, in American football they are part of it. This attracts other target groups. And when an outstanding personality like Taylor Swift becomes the girlfriend of a NFL-player and lives it publicly, that also has an effect.

Show and glamour attract fans

And sport itself also suits the viewing habits of younger people, Ströbel believed: “They no longer want to sit in front of the television for 90 minutes to watch a game, but rather watch a conference with several games and be active on social media at the same time. Attention is decreasing and American football, with its many interruptions, is a good fit.”

This is a success especially for the NFLwhich is also gaining more and more fans in Germany and Europe, who watch games in the sold-out stadium in Munich or watch the Super Bowl on TV at night. But the boom is still far from American football in Germany.

There is little amateur sport in Germany

More football players in German teams are there thanks to the commitment of the NFL Not in Germany, says the President of the American Football Association Germany Fuad Merdanovic: “Basically, what the NFL does is a completely different sport. They work very professionally, but our players train after work. Most football fans in Germany are television viewers and don’t even know that there is a football club near them.

Football is a very complex sport, a team needs up to 50 players, plus the expensive equipment costs around 1,000 euros. In Merdanovic’s view, these are all obstacles to making football more popular as a popular sport in Germany. However, there is significantly more interest in flag football, a simple football variant that is set to become an Olympic sport in 2028: “The barriers to entry are lower, there is no expensive equipment, only five players on the field and parents are less concerned about the risk of injury. Five new clubs have now been formed in Brandenburg alone.”

Whether this will lead to a real boom in football in Germany and eventually form the basis for leagues such as the European Football League remains to be seen. There have already been attempts in the past to establish profiles for American football in Europe. NFL Europe, for example, was discontinued in 2007 after twelve years.

The WDR also reported on this topic on September 19, 2024 on WDR radio: WDR aktuell – The Day on WDR 3 and WDR 4.