Following the schism that occurred in 2015, which resulted in two IFAF World Congresses being held on the same day, one in New York and one in Paris, the German Federation appeared to ally itself to the latter party.

But German site ran.de reports that Huber has acknowledged the CAS ruling in favour of the New York body, and its recognition of Richard MacLean as President.

A partial decision by CAS in October ruled that Tommy Wiking should cease and desist from acting as and referring to himself as President of the IFAF after it was decided he resigned from the position in February 2015 following the collapse of the World Championships in his native Sweden.

In September of 2016, members of the IFAF Congress staged in New York unanimously voted to continue with an attempt to resolve the governance issues at CAS.

At the meeting in the American city, held at the same time as the rival group held their own Congress in Paris, Canadian MacLean was elected to replace Finland's Roope Noronen as President.

Wiking was reappointed as President of the other organisation in the French capital.

Both groups still laid claim to being the official IFAF pending the CAS ruling.

Huber told ran.de that, contrary to reports, the AFVD had not opposed the New York version of the IFAF, which was challenged at CAS by Wiking.

"The AFVD has never been a party to this arbitration, we need to emphasise this, because unfortunately it is always presented differently and for that very reason, of course, we respect every decision of the CAS," Huber said.

"We are assuming that even those who have voted in the Court of Justice three years later realise that it is better, more time- and money-saving, to conduct the substantive discussion internally."

Germany has been acutely affected by the political infighting between the Paris and New York branches of the IFAF.

This year's European Championships were originally due to be hosted by Germany, who won the last version in 2014.

But numerous factors, including qualifying matches that were not played in time and allegations of financial problems, caused the hosts to announce a postponement.

The Championships will now be hosted by Finland and Germany were not named among the entrants in time for the February deadline.

On March 22, Huber told ran.de that Germany had not been officially informed by the New York branch that the Championships would be taking place in Finland.

"We often approached the international authorities with questions in a wide range of matters - several times to Richard MacLean directly," Huber said.

"But unfortunately we did not receive any answers - even on the IFAF website we could not find any information about the tournament."

Christoph Seyrl, secretary general of the participating Austrian association, confirmed to ran.de that his governing body had been contacted.

"We are qualified for the European Championships in Helsinki and have also received an official document from the organiser," he said.