Playoff spots at stake ()

Games in all three of EFAF's running club competitions are scheduled for the weekend of April 21 and 22. In the European Football League the first of the four division champions could be crowned, when the London Blitz host Spain's champion of 2011, L'Hospitalet Pioners, at Finsbury Park. London set up this situation by a surprising 7-6 road win at Paris, which left 2011 French champions La Courneuve Flash with little hope to reach this year's quarterfinals. London, winner of last year's EFAF Cup, entered EFL 2012 with a strong defensive performance and held on to the narrow lead after its first-quarter touchdown and a missed Flash PAT kick that hit the left goal post after the sole Flash touchdown. A win or tie against the Pioners now would seal a London trip to a quarterfinal game at Berlin.

Also on Saturday German champion Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns will make its EFL debut. Six months after a perfect season in the German Football League the game at the Badalona Dracs will be the first of the season for the Unicorns, and that's what worries them a little more than the fact that their set of American players will not be the same as in last year's spectacular run for their first national championship. Still the team is confident to set up a divisional final game with the Parma Panthers in May by emerging victorious at Badalona. Saturday also marks the first of two round-robin games of the Calanda Broncos and the Helsinki Wolverines for another quarterfinal spot. The Swiss team from Chur again has left no doubt in its 2012 games at Switzerland that there should be no arguing about who is favoured in the Nationalliga A. Helsinki, which quite surprisingly won last year's Finnish championship, surely hopes to again prove to be more than just the underdogs.

Two of the top favourites in the EFL competitions who already have their quarterfinal spot secured due to their 2011 progress in the competition will face each other on Sunday - however in their national competition at home. Defending Eurobowl champion Tirol raiders travels to Vienna to play the first of what could turn out to be four encounters of the season with the Vikings. Both teams went unbeaten through the first four weeks of Austrian Football League competition, both have their eyes firmly set on the Eurobowl trophy. And whenever a series of games against the same opponent will define the outcome of a season, the first of these games is quite eagerly awaited by players, coaches and fans alike.

Another Austrian team is engaged in one of the three EFAF Cup games of the weekend. The Blue Devils from Hohenems take on the Grenoble Centaures from France, who brought over their strong performances of 2011 into the new season. Only promoted to the French first division before the 2011 season the team from the French Alps started its European venture with a convincing 30-0 against Valencia and could secure a semifinal spot at Hohenems. In other action last year's runner-up Sollerod from Denmark takes on Wroclaw Giants from Poland, and the second French team from Amiens travels to Alphen in the Netherlands.

One game is scheduled in the CEI Interleague on Sunday. The Györ Sharks, who won the CEI Interleague's opener at Klek by 33-8, visit their fellow-Hungarians Nyiregyhaza Tigers. The CEI Interleague last year was established and replaced former Challenge Cup as EFAF's regional competition in Southeastern Europe. Like in 2011 the core of teams in CEI Interleague stems from Hungary this year, however future plans of EFAF and the Hungarian federation see it expanding to many more countries of the region.

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