Raiders top European ranking (EFAF)

European club competitions for 2012 have just started, so EFAF's new Top 20 of European clubs has been released. Reigning Eurobowl champion Swarco Raiders Tirol tops the list, which is of no surprise, as the Raiders have not only won Austrian Bowl 2011 a few days after their Eurobowl triumph back in the summer, but also fielded an easy win in their 2012 AFL opener against newly-promoted Kornmesser Rangers. So as long as the team does not lose - it will be hard to find a reason to put someone else ahead.

Certainly the Raiders will see some bigger challenges in the near future. On the first weekend of April they travel to Prague, where they meet a Panthers team, which for a surprisingly long time held the lead over the Danube Dragons last week, three weeks later the Tyroleans have to face the Vikings at Vienna. Speaking of Vienna, Danube or Prague: All of the AFL teams in the European competition this year are listed in the top 12 of the list. And at Vienna there might be a notion that the third rank needs to be argued about. Last year's runner-up in the Eurobowl final game, the Berlin Adler, currently still ranked ahead of the Vikings, did not do that well in the national competition in fall - so there is just one more reason for the Vikings to prove their point in their home game against the Raiders.

Berlin is one of three German clubs in the Top 20 - national champion Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns might be quite content with its sixth rank at this time of the year, but two-time Eurobowl champion Braunschweig who returns to EFAF Cup this year finds itself ranked #19 and certainly will be well motivated to move up the list during the season. Same goes for the Milano Seamen from Italy, one of Braunschweig's opponents in the EFAF Cup: The team is managed by Mario Rende who wrote some Eurobowl and Italian football history with his former club from Bergamo. So when the Seamen and Braunschweig meet on Easter Saturday at Milan there will be a little more on stake than just a battle for rank #19 in the EFAF Top 20 - the winner surely should move up quite a few ranks.

The top non-Austrian and non-German team in the Top 20 comes from - Switzerland! The Calanda Broncos are rewarded for their thrilling performance on the road at Vienna in last year's EFL quarterfinals (not to speak of their multi-year unbeaten streak at home in the national league) and occupy the fifth rank. No Swiss team has ever been ranked higher, but Calanda is another one of these teams that might see themselves as slightly underrated, even at this high level. Perfect make-up: If the Broncos are able to hold off Helsinki (#10) in the preliminaries they will meet #4 Graz in the EFL quarterfinals.

The EFAF Top 20 may be viewed in full here: http://www.efaf.info/text.php?Inhalt=top20

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