Power Ranking Flag Football EC 2023 - Part I

Reminder: This article was originally published in German language. This post is a translation using DeepL. Please note that parts of the text may be poorly translated and misleading.

Read the German Version here...

After the European Flag Football Championship 2021 fell victim to the corona pandemic, the continental title matches will now be held again after four long years. In Limerick on the Shannon River in southern Ireland, the games will be played on the university sports grounds, which already hosted the European Ultimate Frisbee Championships in July.

Information about the European Championship tournament is trickling out to the public only sparsely and through various channels shortly before the championships. The teams received a game plan last week, but why this did not make it to the public in an official way remains a secret of the federation or the organizers. As already Philipp Pölzl criticized, there was no detailed information about the tournament mode after the group matches until now. The request of FlagFootball.Rocks for further information about the tournament last week remained unanswered by IFAF so far. The Irish federation answered quickly, but gave us the feedback that they also get only sparse information from IFAF. At the 2021 World Championships, there was still a website, but it was probably run by the Israeli federation (which has since been shut down) and also at the American Continental Championships a few weeks ago, you could get information on the website ifafamericaschampionship.com. In the meantime, there is also a website, but it contains no, really no content, and looks as if the intern had been given three hours to tinker with an Internet presence. A bit shameful for a world federation. The European Championship is not that surprising. That's why we don't share this link here until the situation has improved or relevant information can be found there.

There will probably be a stream, but only from one of the seven fields.

Only on Thursday, the teams were informed about the mode, an official communication to the public, there is not yet. In the men's competition, 20 teams will start in four groups, in the women's competition, 13 teams in one group of 6 and one group of 7. There will be quarterfinal matches in the men's and also in the women's competition. In the men's competition, the top two teams in each group will advance to the final round. How the groups pair up in the quarterfinals is and as yet unknown.

In the women's competition, the top four teams from both groups will qualify for the final round. It will probably be the first against the fourth and the second against the third. But maybe also the first against the third and the second against the fourth.

For the first time at this European Championship, there will be a double power ranking because our guest author Philipp Pölzl will also share his assessment of the teams' playing strength with us on Sunday.

The runners-up of last year's World Games certainly got the easiest group of all favorites for a qualification for the final round. If the Italians play at the same level as they did a year ago, no team in the group should be able to seriously compete with them and they are a hot candidate for the title.

But, if your stars of the World Games around Luke Zahradka are indeed "caught" at the ELF and not there, there will probably be nothing with the title and probably nothing with the semifinals. The Irish and the Ukrainians are internationally inexperienced leaves and most likely not strong enough to bring the second set of the Italians or the other teams badly in trouble.

The open battle for the top two spots for a place in the quarterfinals between the robust Finns, who caused the German team some problems at the 2021 World Cup, the Italians and the Swiss will certainly be interesting.

Prediction:

1. Italy
2. Switzerland
3. Finland
4. Ukraine
5. Ireland

After Great Britain did not take part in the last World Cup, you could feel in recent years how much the British have missed the international stage. Hardly any national team has been to international tournaments as often as the Lions.

Since only the top two teams in the group will surely make it into the play-offs, one of our three favorite teams will have to fall by the wayside. We see a tight three-way battle between the Lions, France, and Spain.

The Netherlands are also back in a European Championship, but will have little chance against these three heavyweights. Their best finish was most recently a sixth place in 2017. Slovakia is competing for the first time, but will have to pay plenty of dues, especially in this group.

Prediction:

1. France
2. Spain
3. Great Britain
4. Netherlands
5. Slovakia

After the unfortunate outcome of the tournament at the World Games last year, the German team will certainly want to show what it can do. Finishing the group in one of the first two places is a must if they want to take part in the upcoming World Championships and is probably also the minimum goal of the selection.

The biggest rival for the group victory is certainly Denmark, the reigning and six-time European champions. At the World Championships in Jerusalem 2021, the two teams faced each other in the match for 7th place, which the Danes only narrowly and fortunately won. At the World Games, the Danes delivered an impressive first two games, but were then unable to build on these performances and ended up in 7th place again, which they achieved without a fight. The German team was unable to play due to Corona.
The Danish Flag Football seems to be in a crisis. For many years they dominated the European competitions in the men's field, but now the light seems to go out, after mergers and dissolution of teams in recent years (Towers, SGD), now also the Harlev Rebels have stopped playing. In addition, the Danes travel without their previous regular quarterback, Frederik Ermler.

We assume that the last group match between the two teams will determine the group winner. Poland, Sweden or the Czech Republic will not be able to hold a candle to the other two and will have to settle for places 3 to 5. Poland will have to stretch in its European Championship debut to avoid finishing in last place. The Czech Republic had skipped the 2019 European Championship, but never managed to break into the top 8 before that either.

The game plan is well laid out for the German team. The first opponent will be Sweden, followed by Poland and the Czech Republic, and finally the match against the Danes. We trust the German team to win against the aging team from Denmark and look forward to the knockout round!

Prediction:

1. Germany
2. Denmark
3. Sweden
4. Czech Republic
5. Poland

With four qualifiers for the final round, the pressure is off for the German team. Wins against Ireland, Finland and also Switzerland are mandatory, which would mean a step into the next round. But a better position means a supposedly easier opponent in the quarterfinals. The top favorite in Group A is the team from Austria. Fourth-placed at the 2022 World Games and bronze medal winners at the 2019 European Championships and 2021 World Championships, the German women were even able to wrest a draw from the Austrians at the 2021 World Championships. However, they are now one step ahead, but will probably have to replace their regular player at the quarterback position.

Their second rivals are the Spanish, who are the reigning European champions. They also won the match for 9th place against the Germans at the World Cup in Jerusalem. However, we have great confidence in the German team that they will beat the Spaniards and pose serious problems to the team from Austria and thus succeed in entering the final round in a top position.

Switzerland has done a lot of development work in the last few years, and in the meantime they are a candidate for the Top 8. Finland, European Champion 2005, unfortunately could not achieve any major success in further appearances at a European Championship and World Championships after 2009. And a club team from Finland has also failed to excel at any of the major European tournaments to date. Hopefully, Ireland's first appearance in a European Championship tournament will certainly not give them serious prospects of reaching the play-offs.

Forecast:

1. Austria
2. Germany
3. Spain
4. Switzerland
5. Finland
6. Ireland

In Group B in the women's competition there will be a three-way fight. We see France, Italy and Great Britain wrestling for places. Great Britain was in the 2019 European Championship final and was defeated by Spain, but has not participated in any international tournament since then.

France finished 8th in the World Games, while Italy finished 6th. At the 2021 World Cup, France took down Italy in the 7th-place match. However, Denmark and the Czech Republic are also not to be underestimated and certainly not far from the three. They could both be a stumbling block for the first-named teams and the three-way fight quickly turns into a four-way fight.

Denmark managed to beat France and the Czech Republic at the 2019 European Championships, losing to eventual European champions Spain by just one point in the semifinals. This will be a tight race, with Denmark able to grab fourth place,

For the Swedish women, as in the last participations in a European Championship, only one of the back places will remain. The team from Ukraine is too inexperienced internationally and will therefore only be able to record a few victories at this tournament.

Forecast:

1. Great Britain
2. France
3. Italy
4. Denmark
5. Czech Republic
6. Sweden
7. Ukraine

All fans of the two German teams should keep Saturday, 19/08/2023 from 15:15 to 16:30 clock, because then it will probably be decided whether the German teams make the step into the playoffs or not. The women take on Spain and at the same time the men meet Denmark!

Finalrunde

Since we don't know the tournament tree yet, we would rather not give a forecast until the final. But we would like to commit to our semifinal favorites:

• Austria
• Germany
• Denmark
• France

On the women's side, these are our top 4:

• Austria
• Great Britain
• Germany
• Spain