ELF player status
One of the goals of the European League of Football is to give local players, called homegrown players (short HG) the chance to develop and play on a higher level to showcase their talent. To this end, the ELF implements restriction of foreign players, referred to as import players, divided into A and E imports.
The status of a player is not coupled to the nationality, but to the country in which he started to play American Football. This way, the league prevents that American players are given European passports and therefore are not considered imports. The latter is common in national leagues in Europe like the German Football League (GFL).
Homegrown players[edit | edit source]
A player counts as homegrown (HG) for a team if he started to play in the country in which the team is located.
For four nations the homegrown market has been expanded to neighbouring countries:[1]
A imports[edit | edit source]
Each team can have four A imports in the active roster. Players who are on the Injured Reserve list (IR) do not count against this limit (A & E imports). At any time, up to two A import players can be on the field. Hence each team usually has two offensive and two defensive A imports.
A imports are players which started American Football in a country with college football. That is
However, almost all A imports in ELF history were from the US.
E imports[edit | edit source]
Players which are neither A imports nor HG are called E imports. Also the E stands for European, this applies to all countries worldwide. For example players from Australia and New Zealand are playing in the ELF.
The number of E imports is restricted to six since the 2023 season. In the 2021 season, ten E imports were allowed, in 2022 each team had eight E spots. There is no restriction of the number of E imports on the field.
It is not the origin of the player that determines his status in the league, but the country in which the player started playing American football. For example, a player born in Spain with a Spanish passport can be considered an E-import in a Spanish team if he started playing American football in Germany.
See also Category:Country for all countries which have or had players in the ELF and Players outside their own country list.
E* players[edit | edit source]
Several players are exempt from the E import rule, as they played for the team or city before the founding of the ELF or before the team joined the ELF. Examples are Sebastian Gauthier for Frankfurt Galaxy, or Tim Unger for Raiders Tirol. The ELF refers to these players as E* players. Since they count as homegrown in the roster, the number of such players in the squad is not limited.
Commisioner exception[edit | edit source]
In some cases, a commissioner exception applies, which any team can apply for. This usually requests that the player in question be considered a homegrown player. This is done in a completely non-transparent process.
