The Ghent Gators are an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team situated in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

. The team was established in 1999 by Craig Bailey, an American living in Belgium, through his local

pizza delivery Pizza delivery is a service in which a pizzeria or pizza chain delivers a pizza to a customer. An order is typically made either by telephone, or over the internet, in which the customer can request pizza type and size, and other items to be ...

business. Along with 8 other Flemish teams, they are part of the

Flemish American Football League The Flemish American Football League (FAFL) is one of the two conferences of the Belgian Football League (BFL). It consists of teams from the Flemish Community, whereas the Ligue Francophone de Football Americain de Belgique (LFFAB) consists of ...

(FAFL) conference in the

Belgian Football League The Belgian American Football League (BAFL) is a sports league for American football in Belgium founded in 1987. The league currently consists of 18 teams from Belgian cities and regions and one team from Luxembourg. The league is divided into t ...

(BFL). They managed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in their existence on May 18, 2014 and won their first Belgian championship on 29 June 2014 by beating the

Brussels Tigers Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgian Bowl In American football, the Belgian Bowl is the championship game of the Belgian Football League (BFL). At the end of each regular season, three teams from each conference play in the BFL playoffs, a six-team single-elimination tournament that culmin ...

XXVII 27 (twenty-seven; Roman numeral XXVII) is the natural number following 26 and preceding 28. In mathematics * Twenty-seven is a cube of 3: 3^3=3\times 3\times 3. 27 is also 23 (see tetration). There are exactly 27 straight lines on a smooth c ...

Current Season

In 2018, the Gators took part in the Belgian second division. They were relegated after the 2016 despite finishing third in the first division due to a forfait in the final game of the season. After cruising through the second division with a record of 8-0 against Izegem Tribes,

Leuven Lions The Leuven Lions are an American football team based in Leuven. The Lions are currently members of the Flemish American Football League (FAFL) conference in the Belgian Football League The Belgian American Football League (BAFL) is a sports l ...

and Waasland Wolves, they qualified for the FAFL Bowl. The game was played on 10 June 2018 against the 2nd best team in the division, the Izegem Tribes. After regulation, the score was 28-28 so it went into overtime. On the very first play of overtime, the Tribes managed to score a touchdown and the Gators were unable to respond. This means Izegem won the Flemish title and advanced to the promotion game where they lost to the

Ostend Pirates The Ostend Pirates are an American football team based in Ostend. The Pirates are currently members of the Flemish American Football League (FAFL) conference in the Belgian Football League (BFL). History Ostend Tigers The original team were the O ...

Senior Roster

Performance

2000-2004

- ''clinched seed to the playoffs'' 2000 Playoffs ----

2006-2009

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2010 season

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2011 season

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2012 season

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2013 season

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2014 season

After their sixth win of the season - versus the

Puurs Titans The Flemish American Football League (FAFL) is one of the two conferences of the Belgian Football League (BFL). It consists of teams from the Flemish Community, whereas the Ligue Francophone de Football Americain de Belgique (LFFAB) consists of ...

- the Ghent Gators qualified for the playoffs for the first time since being established in 1999. They finished the season as the first seed in the

and by doing so, won the Flemish championship and earned a first round bye for the playoffs. In the playoffs they beat the

- they only team that had beaten them so far this season - in a Semi Final thriller and qualified for

XXVII. In their first ever Belgian Bowl, the Gators defeated the

( Walloon Champions) 38-0 and became Belgian Champions.

2015 season

2017 season

Source

2018 season

References

External links

Website Ghent Gators
1999 establishments in Belgium American football teams in Belgium Sport in Ghent American football teams established in 1999 Sports clubs and teams in Belgium {{Belgium-sport-team-stub