Altogether an all-time record number of twenty teams competed to win the European title in 2018.

Italy and Great Britain, as the winners of the tournaments in Italy and Great Britain, were respectively assigned to play against Sweden and Denmark (fifth and sixth place at the 2014 EFAF Championship), with the winners advancing to the 2018 tournament.

In June 2017, Italy was announced to have qualified for the final tournament[1] as only one of the four teams without any match played.

In March 2018, IFAF New York announced to have Sweden, Denmark, and Great Britain advancing to the final tournament.

On 28 March, the website American Football International reported that the reason for Germany not joining was due to the teams in the German Football League voting not to change the league schedule to accommodate the European Championships.