Italian Football League - Power Ranking Week 9

1st Place: Firenze Guelfi

The Guelfi Firenze are the only undefeated team left in the IFL, they are the highest scoring offense with 50.6 points per game, to put that in perspective the second team has a 35.1 average. Let’s highlight the future MVP of the 2025 season too, Andrea Fimiani, the most efficient QB in the IFL right now and he’s the best rushing player with 147 yards per game! Yes, you read that right, 147 yards rushed on average per game! He’s reached over 1000 yards already in just 7 games played, as a quarterback mind you! What more is there to say?! The Guelfi definitely have less competition compared to the teams in the Girone A, but to dominate like they are is never an easy thing to do. We’ll see once they get to the playoffs, if they can keep the same level of play. In the meantime they need to take care of business at home this weekend against the Marines Lazio, who just took down the Giaguari and are gaining momentum.

2nd Place: Ancona Dolphins

The Ancona Dolphins are on a run right now! In the last two games they took down the reigning champs Panthers Parma and then went on to take the lead of the Girone A by beating the Legnano Frogs. They’re the dark horse of the IFL right now, but if they keep playing like this, especially on defense, they have a legit shot for the title. In week 10 the Ancona Dolphins will face the Warriors Bologna, which shouldn’t be a tough matchup for them as they’ll probably retain the lead of the Girone A.

3rd Place: Legnano Frogs

What happened to the Frogs? They looked like an unstoppable team, undefeated in the toughest Girone of the IFL, and then they slammed into a wall. The Dolphins Ancona completely shut them down in Week 9 with a 7-0 final score! This could be a hugely important wakeup call for the Frogs though, as we’ve seen a lot of times in the IFL the undefeated teams find their first loss in the playoffs, like the Skorpions Varese did last year.

Next week, the Legnano Frogs face the Bergamo Lions in what should be a pretty easy matchup for them. It will be very important to regain the momentum they had before this close loss to the Dolphins.

4th Place: Parma Panthers

The reigning champs look like a wounded team right now. They’re sitting in third place of the IFL Girone A with a 5-2 record, and they still have the Rhinos, Frogs and Dolphins to play from now to the end of the season. If they lose even just 2 out of those 3 matchups they might not even make the playoffs, depending on how the Milano Rhinos finish their season. If there’s one thing we know about Parma though is that they’re an extremely well-coached team and they know how to bounce back from adversity like they did last year too. The first brick for that to happen is this weekend, week 10, against the Milano Rhinos, if they win this one they can focus on getting back to the top of the Girone A.

5th Place: Ferrara Aquile

What a rollercoaster it has been so far for the Ferrara Aquile in 2025. The newly promoted team started the season losing a close game to the Skorpions Varese which had us all excited for them, but then fell into a tough period. Right now they’re bouncing back, beating the Skorpions 42-14 in week 8. With the Skorpions and the Giaguari, who just lost to the Marines, to overtake to get into the playoffs. It looks like they have a real chance right now, but it all starts with week 10 at home against the Giaguari Torino, making them lose 2 in a row and moving to 3-4 would be crucial for their chances at a spot in the postseason.

6th Place: Milano Rhinos

It feels like the Milano Rhinos are in no man’s land right now. They don’t look good enough to make the playoffs, especially after losing Bouah and Seck for the ELF season, but they’re definitely not bad enough to fall back with the Warriors and Lions. This weekend they need to prove everyone wrong and put on a performance against the Parma Panthers to chase that playoff dream, if they’re not able to beat them they’ll probably need to win every other game on the schedule, and that doesn’t look possible right now since they still have to play teams like Legnano and Ancona.

7th Place: Torino Giaguari

Week 9’s matchup between the Lazio Marines and the Torino Giaguari finished 23-20, what a huge disappointment for the Torino team. After losing badly against the Firenze Guelfi this is just not what the Giaguari needed. The game was incredibly close this time don’t get me wrong, but they just couldn’t find a way in the end. Now, not only they don’t have a shot at the 1st seed in the Girone B, they risk falling back, maybe even out of the playoffs. In week 10 they face a strong Aquile Ferrara team who’s on the come-up, they just beat on the Skorpions and had two weeks to prepare for this matchup. It won’t be an easy game to win at all, but the Giaguari need to get back on their high horse to avoid having a great season go to waste.

8th Place: Skorpions Varese

The Skorpions Varese are a 3rd-4th seed team, nothing lower, but definitely nothing higher either. In week 8 they lost 42-14 to the Aquile Ferrara in a matchup that felt necessary to win in order to prove themselves as a top 3 team in the Girone B. In week 9 they showed the other side of the medal by winning 38-14 over the Albisola Superiore Pirates. They still have to play the Giaguari Torino in week 11, which will be their next match-up since they have a bye in week 10. This will be the last chance for this Skorpions Varese team to prove they still have what it takes to make a deep playoff run, losing this one might be the dagger in their season, which would be hugely disappointing after the 8-0 record in 2024.

9th Place: Lazio Marines

The Lazio Marines are such a weird team this year. They lost to the Pirates in week 4, then won over the Aquile right after that, lost badly to the Skorpions in week 7 and then now they beat the Giaguari Torino who had lost only against top ranked Guelfi. It was clear from the start of the season that J. Norwood, the import QB, was a star player on offense, but a struggling defense and coaching staff made it hard for the Marines to succeed. This week versus the Giaguari they were finally able to show what their team can do if the Marines come together in all phases of the game. It’ll be extremely tough to make the playoffs for Lazio, but it’s not out of the question yet. No one expects them to win over the Guelfi in their next matchup, but bringing home the games vs the Aquile and Skorpions near the end of the season might give them a shot.

10th Place: Warriors Bologna

The Warriors Bologna have had a tough season so far, they’re the worst scoring offense and the worst scoring defense for points allowed. They did manage to get a win over the Bergamo Lions back in week 3 though, which is keeping them out of the play-downs for now. In week 10 they’ll face the Ancona Dolphins, against whom they don’t have a huge chance of winning. After that they get two weeks off to prepare for their second match-up against the Lions Bergamo and that’s gonna be a must win to secure being out of the play-downs.

11th Place: Albisola Pirates

The Albisola Superiore Pirates are now alone at the bottom of the Girone B, for a while in the season it looked like they could escape the playdowns, but it does not look very possible anymore. Their next game will be in week 11 versus the 5th place Lazio Marines. They’ll have to win this one to escape the play-downs, but it won’t be easy since the Marines just beat the Giaguari.

12th Place: Bergamo Lions

The Lions Bergamo, last in the Girone A, are the only team to not have one game in this year’s IFL. There’s not many upsides to look at right now, but the season is not over. The Lions might not win their next matchup against the Frogs in week 10, or the one against the Dolphins in week 12, but there is still that game in week 13 against the Warriors Bologna, and that one is a must win. Winning in week 13 would mean the Lions Bergamo would avoid the play-downs, and at this point it feels like that’s the only thing left to do.

CLOSING OUT WITH A DIVISIONS RANKING

Disclaimer: This ranking is aimed at the present. It’s heavily based on what was seen on the field this week and it will be like that for future weeks as well. Therefore if a team has a bye they might fall. Of course there is influence from previous accomplishments and future expectations, but as I said, it is based on the present!

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