Bratislava, Zagreb and the Budapest Cowboys were officially introduced as new Central European Football League members at a league meeting in Zagreb. It was decided that Bratislava would be put into North, while the other two teams will play next year in South.
North will consist of the Budapest Wolves, the Gladiators, the Ljubljana Silverhawks and the Bratislava Monarchs; members of the South will be the Vukovi Belgrade, the Novi Sad Dukes, the Zagreb Thunder and the Budapest Cowboys.
Likely not the perfect solution for every team, it was nonetheless the most realistic one. While North currently appears stronger on paper, a more drastic realignment would only result in a change to North’s favor, and besides, the 2007 season showed that expectations before the season don’t always prove to be true.
League game scheduling will remain the same — two games against each conference opponent, one against each team from the other conference — only with two more added games because of additional teams this year. The two more games will also be an additional burden for teams, but with the league being played in two phases again, the scheduling is flexible enough for teams to push a game or two to the fall or spring season. Currently, the league is aiming for a middle of April start of the season.
Steps that would need to be taken in order to make the league more attractive and with better media coverage, revolve around live broadcasts in Serbia, or in other countries. After two playoff games from Belgrade were aired live on Serbian nationally covered TV, there is a very strong possibility, practically a done deal, that next year six to ten games from Serbia would be broadcast.
One of points of emphasis would in future be put on youth teams, with incentives for the teams to further develop their junior programs. While most agreed that homegrown talent is something that they would be focusing on, a longer debate over limiting the possibilities of teams acquiring professional players followed.
Perhaps unnecessary as no team in 2008 appears quite ready to acquire more than a few quality players from the US or Canada, the matter was finally settled with the teams accepting a star system. With it, every team has a maximum of six stars, with one being given to any American or Canadian player, and two to a player with NCAA experience.
Other regulation tweaks include roster changes for the fall part of the season — as some teams have player problems in the fall, up to 10 additional changes have been allowed after the teams will have filled up their rosters to the maximum of 53.
NCAA rules will be enforced strictly next year when it comes to mandatory and banned equipment. This, unfortunately for some players, means that in the future only clear visors must be used. While the league did not disapprove of them in the past, it caused problems with officials from different countries not informed with CEFL specific rules, i.e. officials strictly enforcing NCAA rules.
The three teams that were added for next year were among 15 teams interested in joining CEFL, which was significantly more than in past years. All the more proof that the league is going in the right direction, and the impact that was made last year will be a huge test for the league in 2008 to continue moving forward.