In about one month time, the third EUCF will take place in Paris. Three years ago, the EFDF launched the annual EUCS for elite open and women clubs, with the EUCF as its final tournament. Read on to learn what it's all about, notably the meaning of all these strange acronyms...

Created by the European Flying Disc Federation, in short the EFDF, the goal of the European Ultimate Championships Series (that's what EUCS stands for) is to:

• create better competition for the top European clubs,
• involve as many teams / nations / players as possible,
• enable mid-level clubs to play at higher levels, and to
• annually crown a European club champion.

To achieve this, the EFDF divided Europe into four geographic regions:

• North East (Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Norway, Iceland)
• Central East (Denmark, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia)
• South West (United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)
• West (Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel)

Basically the series is composed of three stages:

1. Several qualification tournaments at country level to determine the teams that will represent a country at...
2. ...one of the four regionals (let's call them EUCR), where the best teams qualify for...
3. ...the European Ultimate Championships Final (called EUCF).

EUCS took off in 2006, with only two regionals -- the teams representing the West and South West region have been selected based on the results of the UKUA Tour 2006 (for the west) and EUCC 2005 (for the south west):

• EUCR 2006 North East in Helsinki, Finland
• EUCR 2006 Central East in Nürnberg, Germany

The finals took place in Italy: EUCF 2006 in Florence. First winners were Skogshyddan (Sweden) in the Open division, and Iceni (United Kingdom) in the Women's division. The Spirit of the Game awards went to Flying Angels Bern (Switzerland) and Tequila Boom Boom (Italy).

In 2007, the series second year, the EUCS featured all four regionals:

• EUCR 2007 North East in Helsinki, Finland
• EUCR 2007 Central East in Nürnberg, Germany
• EUCR 2007 South West in Ravenna, Italy
• EUCR 2007 West in London, United Kingdom

with the concluding tournament EUCF 2007 Basel, Switzerland. Clapham (United Kingdom) took the crown in the Open division, with the Woodchicas (Germany) winning the Women's division. Both Spirit of the Game awards went to LeedsLeedsLeeds (United Kingdom)!

Going into its third year now, the EUCS 2008 (or simply Champions League as it is called in France) consisted again of all full set of regionals:

• EUCR 2008 North East in Stockholm, Sweden
• EUCR 2008 Central East in Nürnberg, Germany
• EUCR 2008 South West in Fontenay-le-Comte, France
• EUCR 2008 West in London, United Kingdom

plus the soon-to-be-played finals: the EUCF 2008 in Paris, France! All previous winners made their way through qualification, come to Paris to see who takes the EUCS trophies this year!