In 2022 Sportklub Central European Football League will backtrack to its well-trodden path. With a record number of members, the new season of CEFL Championship is designed more ambitious than ever. As many as 13 teams from the whole Europe will do battle for the CEFL Bowl XVI.

Most of them will be top-class national champions, 9 of them to be exact. The winners from last season’s Championship are coming back as well. The participants are (alphabetically):

Badalona Dracs, Spanish champions
Belgrade SBB Vukovi, Serbian champions
Budapest Wolves, Hungarian champions
Calanda Broncos, Swiss champions
Copenhagen Towers, Danish champions
Danube Dragons Vienna, Austrian semifinalists
Flash de La Courneuve, French powerhouse team
LG OLED Las Rozas Black Demons, Spanish vice-champions
Moscow Spartans, Russian champions
Örebro Black Knights, Swedish champions
Parma Panthers, Italian champions
Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, CEFL Bowl XV champions and German vice-champions
Thonon Black Panthers, French 2019 champions

There were 4 weekends available for the competition, so conference play was again out of reach. The cup system will be used once more, with three seeded teams skipping the first round. Others teams are matched regionally in single-elimination games.

First round, 23 April

Seeded teams are Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, Calanda Broncos and Parma Panthers. Remaining teams will be paired up as such:

Copenhagen Towers – Örebro Black Knights
Thonon Black Panthers – LG OLED Las Rozas Black Demons
Badalona Dracs – Flash de La Courneuve
Belgrade SBB Vukovi – Danube Dragons Vienna
Budapest Wolves – Moscow Spartans

In the second round 3 winners of the first-round games will travel to play the seeded teams and 2 first-round winners will play each other.

Second round, 14 May

Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns – Copenhagen Towers/ Örebro Black Knights
Calanda Broncos – Budapest Wolves/Moscow Spartans
Parma Panthers – Belgrade SBB Vukovi/Danube Dragons Vienna
Thonon Black Panthers/ LG OLED Las Rozas Black Demons – Badalona Dracs/Flash de La Courneuve

Hosting priority for the last game will be in the following order: Thonon Black Panthers, Badalona Dracs, LG OLED Las Rozas Black Demons, Flash de La Courneuve.

The scheduled playing dates of the opening two rounds will have to be moved for some games due to teams’ national league obligations. Depending on the participants, this may also be the case in the semifinals. For this reason, semifinals matchups will be formed as the competition progresses.

The date is originally planned for the semifinals is 4 June, while the CEFL Bowl XVI is scheduled for 25 June. The venue of the final game will be decided during the season.