EFLI franchise changes and more expansion news

Updates teams and logos. Click to enlarge.

I've been covering the Elite Football league of India (EFLI), an American style football league being founded in India and its environs. I have more information about some franchise moves, changes as well as expansion plans. 

First, my beloved Goa Swarm are no more. However, no need to despair -- the team hasn't been disbanded, it has just been relocated from Goa to to the city of Chennai (which most Americans would recognize by its older name of Madras). Poor Goa, even Los Angeles managed to hold onto its football franchise longer. 

In addition the Blackhawks apparently moved from Bhubaneswar to Bangalore.

Along with the addition of the Sri Lankan team the Columbo Lions, a new team from Bengal called the Tigers has also joined the league. Because their name is so close to the Pune Black Tigers, Pune has changed its name to the Marathas.

They are also saying another Indian team from Jaipur, as well as a team from Bangladesh, are slated to join the league. No word on the rumored 2nd team from Sri Lanka, the wonderfully named Kandi Tuskers.

So, at the moment they have 10 teams, with expansion planned for two more. How that will effect the season that is set to begin November 11, 2012 is unclear. They appear to have removed the schedule from the EFLI website. I'm assuming they're reworking it to account for the new teams.

EFLI is also signing agreements with Indian colleges to begin playing American style football. So far 9 colleges have signed on, with the intention to get 64 colleges to adopt football programs

One last piece of news, as you can see in the picture below the players have finally started practicing in pads. They're looking better and better as they train. 'Course, they would even look better in Chennai Swarm uniforms. As always...

Go Swarm Go!