July 28, 2017 by Ravi Vasudevan in Livewire, News with 0 comments
There will no longer be a separate men’s “Elite” and “Challenger” division at the EUCF this September in Italy. Previously, eight teams started in elite pools of four and the bottom two out of those pools would have to play the winner of one of the four challenger pools of four teams each. There will still be 24 men’s club teams at the EUCF, but now the first phase of the tournament will just be six equal pools of four teams.
Regional coordinators have been informed and no longer have to include a game to go to the elite division and can just qualify teams directly to the EUCF.
The main reason for this change is that there are more teams reaching levels close to the top eight, so the split between elite and challenger no longer seems necessary. The EUF also says they will be keeping a close eye on the Men’s Division to see if it makes sense to expand to a 32 team EUCF in the future.
The women’s and mixed divisions will remain the same as in previous years with 12 teams each.
More details on this development can be found on the EUF website.
