New Football Leagues Planned

This week there have been three stories about football leagues that are planning to start.  There are two outdoor leagues and one indoor league.  Let's take a look at the new leagues:

CONTINENTAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

League commissioner Mike Kelly is hoping to revive a new version of the Continental Football League which played in the 1960s.  Kelly has more than 45 years of experience in the NCAA, CFL, NFL and XFL.  He is hoping to bring a community-based, small town feel to the league.  The plan is to have an eight-team league with four teams each in the North and South.  Kelly hopes to be the "AA" minor league for the National Football League (NFL).  I'm not sure why the goal is to be "AA", but several semi-pro/minor leagues have desired this in the past and failed.  The original namesake played from 1965-1969 with 22 teams during its existence.  

EUROPEAN FOOTBALL ALLIANCE

Several teams from the European League of Football (ELF) have defected to the new European Football Alliance (EFA).  Barely a week after the Stuttgart Surge won the 2025 title, the Surge joined 10 other teams to jump to the new league.  Other teams include Nordic Storm, Berlin Thunder, Vienna Vikings, Frankfurt Galaxy, Rhein Fire, Paris Musketeers, Madrid Bravos, Triol Raiders, Wroclaw Panthers and Prague Lions.  It is expected that others may join these in the coming months as they were not happy with the management and lack of transparency of the ELF.  This appears to be a very pivotal for American-style football in Europe.  It would also be helpful if the NFL partnered with their European brothers to create a more stable league for Europe. 

INTERNATIONAL ARENA LEAGUE

This is yet another arena/indoor football league planning to join the crowded field of arena leagues.  Most are unstable with teams annually jumping from league-to-league to find a good fit.  The league has a lofty goal of eight teams around the world.  Their website currently lists Cincinnati (Ohio), Greensboro (North Carolina), Salt Lake City (Utah), Las Vegas (Nevada), Stuttgart (Germany), Nottingham (England), Dusseldorf (Germany) and Glasgow (Scotland) with hopes to add more teams to play a 14-game schedule. They also plan to award a $2 Million Dollar Prize to the league champion.  Kickoff is planned for Spring of 2026.  The indoor game desperately needs stability which it hasn't had since the original Arena Football League (AFL) in the 1990s.  There have been too many small and underfunded leagues come and go over the past five years.  I am not too confident that this league will even make it to opening kickoff.  We will keep an eye on them and see how it progresses.  

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