As the European League wraps of Football up its first regular season, talks of adding teams have already begun. According to Walter Reiterer of Austria’s Puls 24, the Vienna Vikings executives have been in discussions with the ELF about 2022.

There haven’t been any final decisions made by either side yet, but according to the Vikings’ president, the talks were positive. The team announced their intentions in a press conference on Thursday, and said a final decision could be made by the end of September.

“We met with ELF in Munich several months ago, the meetings were intriguing to both sides as the ELF knows that Vienna would be a very interesting location and the Vikings a very interesting partner. Following the initial meeting, we had several telephone conferences, and contracts were sent. Currently we have everything we need to make a decision. We want to take our time and calmly think about the decision within the next 14 days. If we want to take this big step into a professional league with our team or not.”

Vikings President Karl Wurm

The HC of the teams also had a statement during the press conference:

“Of course nothing is set, nothing is has been signed, but the characteristics are there. We are doing our homework on what would be best for the Vikings, football in Austria, our players, our team. The European League of Football has a product that is very attractive and new. It would be fantastic if we could compete.” 

HC Chris Calaycay

There is another team that could be considering the jump – the Swarco Raiders, also of the Vienna league. According to Alex Machow of the American Football International, one specific player on the raiders was approached about his interest in playing for the Raiders in the ELF.

Expansion will happen. A media person from within the European League of Football recently posted about creating a new logo and branding for a team, and we can make the educated guess that it wasn’t for an existing team. Whether the Vikings are planning a facelift upon joining is yet to be seen, but the head of the media department Christopher Han had this to say about the recent expansion news.:

“Right now, we are in talks, as reported. Still franchises are handling everything separately. But we should stay humble and see that we will develop smth big.”

Christopher Hahn

It’s no surprise that teams are looking to join the upstart league, as for the entire season they have been anything but your average football product. It is still to be determined how many teams will be part of the ELF in 2022, but it’s been noted that while growth is the idea, they’re not interested in doing it too fast. The plan is to have 24 teams in 12 countries, but this doesn’t have to be immediate.