Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Back in 2016 I was offered and accepted the Head Coaching position with a team in Poland.
The team was located in the
Baltic Sea coast city of Gdańsk
The Wikingowie (Vikings) were a promising second year club who had over 50 players on their inaugural roster in 2015.
I liked everything about the team's representatives during the recruitment process and the club's outlook for the season, it was a good fit in my opinion.
Then, about three weeks before my scheduled flight to Gdańsk, the Polish Federation booted the club from the Polish League for their failure to pay all of their 2015 dues to the Federation.
The club thus folded and I was out of a job in 2016.
Or so I thought . . .
Sweden's Wäsby Warriors, located about 20 miles north of Stockholm, soon took me on for a May-June job in their off-season to teach fundamentals to their players and coach their coaches. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my EuroBall coaching career. The Warriors liked it so much that they asked me back again to do the same job in May-June of 2017.
The word about my exciting but somewhat off-beat job with the Warriors reached the ears of Enrique Martín Alonso, the General Manager of the Osos Rivas team located in the suburbs of Madrid, Spain. While visiting Barcelona for a few days at the end of my 2016 stay with the Warriors, Enrique and I met to discuss what happened with the Warriors. He loved the idea and offered me the same mentoring spot with the Osos during their pre-season training during October-November of 2016.
We lived near Madrid for two months
coaching not only the Osos . . .
We were coaching the Osos two nights a week and would drive 35 miles to the north of Madrid to the quaint city of Guadalajara for another two practices on our Osos off days. It was a busy time to be sure.
Thus 2016 saw us enjoying four months coaching the sport we love with wonderful players and coaches in Sweden and Spain with the chance to enjoy two of Europe's greatest cities, Stockholm and Madrid, on an almost daily basis.
Now, while 2016 wound up being a great overall experience for us, it did get me to thinking about what had not come to fruition in Gdańsk. It led me to the creation of "The Five Year Rule."
The rule simply states that as a potential EuroBall player or coach, one should be leery about entering into any contract negotiations with a club that has been in existence for less than five years. Although the people involved with a relatively new team may be sincere, honest and with lofty goals, the harsh economic and competitive realities of EuroBall may still overwhelm them.
This was certainly the case with the good people that I met while speaking with the Wikingowie brass.
Fast forwarding to 2018 in Italy . . .
The Lazio Ducks were formed in 2018
This new Italian DI team based in Rome was formed via the merger of two former DI teams, the Roma Grizzlies and the Lazio Marines.
The Ducks Head Coach that season was none other than our good friend Bart Iaccarino. We met Bart, an Italian from Sorrento, when we both coached in Spain in 2015. We have since coached together on six other occasions with the Europe Warriors and Brasil Onças and had discussed all sorts of American football related topics over the years.
I was coaching the Varese Skorpions in 2018 and towards the end of the Ducks' inaugural season they had a game in nearby Bergamo which Laurie and I attended.
We talked with Bart before the game and I asked him how things were going. His four word response was "The Five Year Rule."
Bart was back again in Spain the next season coaching Barcelona's L'Hospitalet Pioners to the Spanish DII National Championship.
Another victim of the dreaded
"Five Year Rule"
The European League of Football started play in 2021 with a modest eight teams.
The next season, the ELF expanded to 12 franchises total with the Istanbul Rams being one of the four new 2022 franchises.
In 2023, the ELF added another six clubs creating a three conference, 18 team circuit.
About two months before the start of the 2023 campaign, the Istanbul Rams announced that due to financial hardships, they were dropping out of the league for 2023 while trying to regroup for a new ELF run in 2024.
This decision left the ELF with scheduling issues with now only 17 teams for 2023.
Unfortunately, "The Five Year Rule" struck again.
Then, this week, this happened . . .
One of the original eight
franchises informed the ELF that they
may be forced to drop out mid-season
due to financial concerns
In 2021, this east German club finished in third place in the ELF's Northern Conference with a 5-5 record.
The 2022 ELF season was a tough one for the Kings going 4-8 with a fourth place finish in the ELF Northern Conference.
So far in 2023, the Kings are a respectable 2-2, tied for third place in the ELF's Eastern Conference. Leipzig's two wins though have come at the expense of two 2023 ELF expansion teams, the 0-3 Prague Lions and the 0-4 Fehérvár Enthroners.
The ELF's goal of becoming Europe's super league of American football at a completely professional basis has been considered lofty goal by many in the know to say the least. With 17 teams located in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain and Switzerland, the cost of travel, housing and salaries with somewhat limited funding streams is a serious issue for all ELF clubs.
"The Five Year Rule" may be rearing its ugly head once again I believe.
Just saying . . .
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