Sportklub CEFL keeps pushing the boundary in preparation for its 15th season. After finalizing the Championship in November, arrangements for the CEFL Cup are wrapped up too.
The tournament will be elevated to new heights and it could almost double as our premiere competition. The array of participants in season 2020 would easily challenge teams from the Championship. In fact, most of them do that regularly in their championships’ playoffs, and others are national champions in their own right.
Competition will again consist of 8 high-profile teams, this time from 7 countries. Half of those participants are new to CEFL, 3 are coming back from last season, and 1 is a former CEFL Bowl champion.
Last year’s finalist Bolzano Giants will have another go at the Cup title that escaped them by a single point and went to Moscow Spartans. A team that played the Giants in the first round last season, Budapest Wolves, are returning as well. Their namesakes from Belgrade, SBB Vukovi (translated to Wolves in Serbian), are not missing next season either. A team that beat the Belgraders in CEFL Bowl XI (2016) in one of the most exciting CEFL games to date, Graz Giants, are the last familiar name.
One of the new additions and the first team to join from beyond the channel are British champions London Warriors. Another newcomer to CEFL, but a very experienced team in European competitions is a French powerhouse, La Courneuve Flash. Swiss national league will contribute their runner-up team from the “peace capital”, Geneva Seahawks. The list of fresh blood ends with the team on the rise, Hungarian champions, Fehervar Enthroners.
The Cup will continue to be played as a single-elimination knockout tournament in 3 rounds. First round – the quarterfinals, will take place on 9 May, or alternatively 25 April.
First round games:
London Warriors – La Courneuve
Flash
Bolzano Giants – Geneva Seahawks
Fehervar Enthroners –
Projekt Spielberg Graz Giants
Belgrade SBB Vukovi – Budapest
Wolves
Second round will be played on 6 June with the following 2 possible semifinal games.
Semifinal game West (1 of the following 4 alternatives):
Geneva Seahawks –
London Warriors, or
Bolzano Giants – London Warriors, or
Geneva
Seahawks – La Courneuve Flash, or
La Courneuve Flash – Bolzano
Giants
Semifinal game East (1 of the following 4 alternatives):
Projekt
Spielberg Graz Giants – Belgrade SBB Vukovi, or
Projekt Spielberg
Graz Giants – Budapest Wolves, or
Budapest Wolves – Fehervar
Enthroners, or
Belgrade SBB Vukovi – Fehervar Enthroners
Final game is scheduled for 27 June and the venue will be determined after the semifinal games have been played. We are sure all these matchups will promise an exhilarating spring in Sportklub CEFL.