|
BRITISH FOOTBALL LEAGUE |
|---|
| 2025 BFL SEASON | |
| 2024 BFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME | |
| BFL TEAMS | |
|---|---|
| BFL PLAYOFFS | |
BRITISH FOOTBALL LEAGUE kicked-off in 2015 and is a fantasy football league to my love of the game of Gridiron Football and the NFL. Alex Thomas is the BFL Commissioner and the BFL does not own the rights to the teams and their logos and are used for entertainment purposes only.
In 2025, the BFL introduced a new logo, keeping in line with the UK flag American Football theme but dropped the adjusted 'B' logo stylised from the original London Monarchs logo changed from an 'M' front view to a 'B' side view although the 'B' was often mistaken for a '3'.
 |
2015-2019 |
|---|---|
 |
2020-2024 |
|
2025- |
2025 BFL logo is AI generated.
The league is made up of 16 teams split into two conferences made up of 2 divisions of 4 teams each, who are 'affiliated' with an NFL team as per the final standings following the close of the previous season, so 2024 affiliates were chosen following the close of the 2023 NFL season and in alphabetical order per NFL city/region i.e. in 2024, Caledonian Knights were given the Baltimore Ravens as the Ravens finished in the top 6 NFL standings and Baltimore is in alphabetical order..
In 2025, the league expanded by adding Avon Fire, Humberside Destroyers, Sheffield Surge and Leicester Stallions and the conference alignment.
Top 4 per conference (8 teams) qualify for the playoffs, with Divisional Conference Semi-Finals for the 2025 season.
The BFL limits expansion as this keeps the league competitive and means that NFL affiliates will not always be affiliated with the same BFL teams each season and possibly hinder playoff chances.
|
TEAMS |
|---|
 |
BRITISH FOOTBALL CONFERENCE |
|---|---|
 |
UNITED FOOTBALL CONFERENCE |
| EXPANSION | # |
|---|---|
| 2015-2018 | 8 |
| 2019-2020 | 10 |
| 2021-2024 | 12 |
| 2025- | 16 |
| 2015-2018 | 8 | Birmingham Bandits London Monarchs MANCHESTER DEMONS SCOTTISH CLAYMORES Sussex Pirates TYNESIDE MARINERS Welsh Dragons YORKSHIRE VIKINGS |
|---|---|
| 2019-2020 | |
| 10 | Birmingham Bandits London Monarchs MANCHESTER DEMONS SCOTTISH CLAYMORES Sussex Pirates TYNESIDE MARINERS Welsh Dragons YORKSHIRE VIKINGS |
CALEDONIAN KNIGHTS (E) Sherwood Forest Outlaws (E) |
|
| 2021-2024 | |
| 12 | Birmingham Bandits CALEDONIAN KNIGHTS London Monarchs MANCHESTER DEMONS SCOTTISH CLAYMORES Sherwood Forest Outlaws Sussex Pirates TYNESIDE MARINERS Welsh Dragons YORKSHIRE VIKINGS |
Merseyside Centurions (E) Thames Valley Thunder (E) |
|
| 2025- | |
| 16 | Avon Fire Birmingham Bandits CALEDONIAN KNIGHTS Humberside Destroyers London Monarchs MANCHESTER DEMONS Merseyside Centurions SCOTTISH CLAYMORES Sherwood Forest Outlaws Sussex Pirates Thames Valley Thunder TYNESIDE MARINERS Welsh Dragons YORKSHIRE VIKINGS |
Avon Fire (E) Humberside Destroyers (E) LEICESTER STALLIONS (E) SHEFFIELD SURGE (E) |
|
(E) - Expansion Team
TEAM NAMES
Teams are primarily given names from leagues past and present, others are based on unrelated college football teams and one is not inspired by any current team past or present. Names in brackets are those where BFL teams have received inspiration for their name or logo.
As this league began in 2015, the Tampa Bay Bandits (USFL 1983) had not existed since the planned 1986 season and therefore they are not to be confused with the recently relaunched Tampa Bay Bandits and are inspired by the previous incarnation of this team.
* - 2025 expansion team.
Due to the UFL owning the rights to the former USFL (2022) & XFL (2023) teams, these nicknames are therefore not in contention to be used for expansion teams.
These are the regions represented by each team which means that future expansion may overlap these regions similar to that in Scotland. The city in brackets represents the location of the team unless stated by the team name.
| TEAM | LEAGUE | REGIONS |
|---|---|---|
| AVON FIRE* |
RHEIN FIRE (NFL EUROPA 1995-2007) |
South West England (BRISTOL) |
| BIRMINGHAM BANDITS |
TAMPA BAY BANDITS (USFL 1983) |
West Midlands |
| Caledonian Knights |
NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY KNIGHTS (WLAF) |
Western Scotland (Glasgow) |
| HUMBERSIDE DESTROYERS* |
NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY HITMEN (XFL 2001) VIRGINIA DESTROYERS (UFL 2009-2012) |
Hull & Humberside including North East Lincolnshire (HULL) |
| LEICESTER STALLIONS* |
BALTIMORE STALLIONS (CFL 1994-1995) |
Leicestershire |
| LONDON MONARCHS |
London Monarchs (NFL EUROPA) |
Capital region including Surrey, Essex & Kent |
| MANCHESTER DEMONS |
>SAN FRANCISCO DEMONS (XFL 2001) |
Greater Manchester including Cheshire & Lancashire |
| Merseyside Centurions |
COLOGNE CENTURIONS (NFL EUROPA) |
Merseyside (Liverpool) |
| Scottish Claymores |
Scottish Claymores (NFL EUROPA) |
Eastern Scotland (Edinburgh) |
| SHEFFIELD SURGE* |
SACRAMENTO SURGE (WLAF 1991-1992) |
South Yorkshire |
| SHERWOOD FOREST OUTLAWS |
NO LEAGUE | East Midlands (Nottingham) |
| SUSSEX PIRATES |
PEORIA PIRATES (ARENA FOOTBALL 2) |
East & West Sussex (Brighton) |
| Thames Valley Thunder |
BERLIN THUNDER (NFL EUROPA) |
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire (Milton Keynes) |
| TYNESIDE MARINERS |
NAVY MIDSHIPMEN (COLLEGE FOOTBALL) |
North & South Tyneside (Newcastle) |
| WELSH DRAGONS |
NEW YORK DRAGONS (ARENA FOOTBALL 2) |
Wales (Cardiff) |
| YORKSHIRE VIKINGS |
BRIGHAM YOUNG COUGARS (COLLEGE FOOTBALL) |
N,S,E & W Yorkshire (Leeds) |
EXPANSION TEAMS
Expansion is limited to the 32 NFL teams each team can be affiliated with but at present limited to 16 teams.
Leicester & Sheffield are the additional expansion teams that can either be named after teams in defunct leagues (AAF, CFL-USA, NFL EUROPA, UFL (2009-2012) & XFL (2001)), names linked to the city/region and a previous nickname but with a different logo i.e. Humberside Destroyers which uses the Virginia Destroyers name but uses a stylised version of the New York/New Jersey Hitmen (XFL 2001).
NFL AFFILIATES
As of the 2025 season, 31 teams have been affiliated with BFL teams.
1 team (Kansas City Chiefs) are the most common affiliate with 10 appearances.
1 team (New York Jets) has yet to be affiliated.
| TEAM | # | RECENT SEASON | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS | 10 | 2025 |
 |
LOS ANGELES RAMS | 7 | 2025 |
 |
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS | 7 | 2022 |
 |
BUFFALO BILLS | 6 | 2025 |
 |
GREEN BAY PACKERS | 6 | 2025 |
 |
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS | 6 | 2025 |
 |
DALLAS COWBOYS | 6 | 2024 |
 |
BALTIMORE RAVENS | 5 | 2025 |
 |
PITTSBURGH STEELERS | 5 | 2025 |
 |
TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS | 5 | 2025 |
 |
CINCINNATI BENGALS | 4 | 2025 |
 |
HOUSTON TEXANS | 4 | 2025 |
 |
MINNESOTA VIKINGS | 4 | 2025 |
 |
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES | 4 | 2025 |
 |
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS | 4 | 2024 |
 |
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS | 4 | 2021 |
 |
DENVER BRONCOS | 3 | 2025 |
 |
LOS ANGELES CHARGERS | 3 | 2025 |
 |
ARIZONA CARDINALS | 3 | 2022 |
 |
DETROIT LIONS | 2 | 2025 |
 |
NEW YORK GIANTS | 2 | 2023 |
 |
CLEVELAND BROWNS | 2 | 2024 |
 |
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS | 2 | 2023 |
 |
LAS VEGAS RAIDERS | 2 | 2022 |
 |
TENNESSEE TITANS | 2 | 2022 |
 |
CHICAGO BEARS | 2 | 2021 |
 |
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS | 2 | 2019 |
 |
washington Commanders |
1 | 2025 |
 |
MIAMI DOLPHINS | 1 | 2024 |
 |
ATLANTA FALCONS | 1 | 2017 |
 |
CAROLINA PANTHERS | 1 | 2016 |
NO APPEARANCES |
|||
 |
NEW YORK JETS |
||
LOGOS
|
2015-2019 |
|---|---|
|
2020-2025 |
|
2025- |
|
playoffs |
|---|
Since 2025, and prior to the 2020 season, the top two division teams contested the individual division finals, making up 8 teams and meaning that the Division champion will no longer receive a bye into the Division Final but will automatically host it instead like they did from 2015-2018. From 2015-2019, the playoffs were made up of 4 teams and expanded to 6 from 2019-2024. The introduction of the Conferences and their Divisions, discontinued the Division Semi-Finals.
See BFL Rules 2-4 for further details.
The BFL Standings can be found here.
All playoff pages show '@' for away games and 'VS' for home games.
|
BFL Championship Game |
|---|
Wembley Stadium, London is the designated host with the designated home team on conference rotation per highest seed.
The game is contested by the Northern & Southern Conferences' champions.
| SEASON | WINNER | SCORE | LOSER | STADIUM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 2015  |
 BIRMINGHAM BANDITS (1) |
27 @ 17 |  MANCHESTER DEMONS |
 WEMBLEY STADIUM LONDON,UK |
| 2 2016  |
BIRMINGHAM BANDITS (2) |
31 VS 20 |  SCOTTISH CLAYMORES |
|
| 3 2017  |
SCOTTISH CLAYMORES (1) |
23 VS 9 | BIRMINGHAM BANDITS |
|
| 4 2018  |
SCOTTISH CLAYMORES (2) |
40 @ 30 | BIRMINGHAM BANDITS |
|
| 5 2019  |
SCOTTISH CLAYMORES (3) |
23 VS 12 |  WELSH DRAGONS |
|
| 6 2020  |
 SHERWOOD FOREST OUTLAWS (1) |
52 VS 27 |  CALEDONIAN KNIGHTS |
|
| 7 2021  |
SCOTTISH CLAYMORES (4) |
36 VS 24 |  LONDON MONARCHS |
|
| 8 2022  |
LONDON MONARCHS (1) |
40 VS 35 | CALEDONIAN KNIGHTS |
|
| 9 2023+  |
 SUSSEX PIRATES (1) |
40 @ 36(OT) | CALEDONIAN KNIGHTS |
|
| 10 2024  |
LONDON MONARCHS (2) |
34 VS 24 | MANCHESTER DEMONS |
STANDINGS
 |
|
4MOST WINSSCOTTISH |
5MOST APPEARANCESSCOTTISH |
Scottish Claymores have won the most BFL Championships (4), Caledonian Knights have lost the most BFL Championships (3) and 4 teams (Merseyside Centurions, Thames Valley Thunder, TYNESIDE MARINERS and Yorkshire Vikings) have yet to appear in the BFL Championship Game.
From 2016-2023 (8 seasons), a Scottish team (Caledonian Knights and Scottish Claymores) appeared in every Championship Game, of which the Claymores have won 4 and the Knights have yet to win.
OVERTIME
2023 + - Both teams were drawn 33-33 at the end of regular time, therefore both teams' 1st quarter points were used to decide OT (Caledonian Knights (3) & Sussex Pirates (7)
| Team | REC | A | RT | RA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SCOTTISH CLAYMORES | 4-1 | 5 | 2021 | 2021 |
|
LONDON MONARCHS | 2-1 | 3 | 2024 | 2024 |
|
BIRMINGHAM BANDITS | 2-2 | 4 | 2016 | 2016 |
|
SUSSEX PIRATES | 1-0 | 1 | 2023 | 2023 |
|
SHERWOOD FOREST OUTLAWS | 1-0 | 1 | 2020 | 2020 |
|
MANCHESTER DEMONS | 0-2 | 2 | 0 | 2024 |
|
CALEDONIAN KNIGHTS | 0-3 | 3 | 0 | 2023 |
|
WELSH DRAGONS | 0-1 | 1 | 0 | 2019 |