No nationals, no regionals - clubs go straight to Euros!
April 27, 2020 by Ravi Vasudevan in News with 0 comments
The EUCF, Europe’s yearly club championship event, will likely look very different this year compared to previous years. Ted Beute of the European Ultimate Federation board revealed some of the EUF plans on a video he did for Tokay Ultimate as part of a series that Tokay is running on community members during lockdown.
The EUF are cancelling all EUCR regional qualifying tournaments this year, normally scheduled for August, because of restrictions throughout Europe caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
In lieu of this, the EUF wants to host a larger extended event (xEUCF) in Bruges, Belgium, in October. Though this decision is not yet final, this event would be four days instead of three and feature up to 32 open teams, 20 women’s teams, and 20 mixed teams.1 An EUF board member told Ultiworld that the EUF plans to look at the past few years of EUCF results and allocate the 72 spots to different nations based on their performance. It will be up to the nations to decide how to grant the bids they receive to their clubs. They can use results from 2019, or perhaps hold a qualifying tournament within their countries this summer. However, the latter possibility of a qualifying tournament may not be feasible as the EUF would like to have a list of teams by June or July, and most countries will not be able to hold any sporting events that early.
Holding such an event is still contingent on whether or not it will be possible to have international sporting events at all in October. That future is still very uncertain, but the European ultimate community would surely welcome a huge club division event like the xEUCF in October if it is possible. The EUF hopes to finalize their decision on whether or not the xEUCF would be possible in August.
The EUCF would normally have had 24 open teams, 16 women’s teams, and 12 mixed teams in 2020 ↩
