World Footy News

The Vienna Kangaroos have announced they will host the 4th Central European AFL Championships on Saturday 9th June, 2007. The CEAFL tournament has run every year since 2003, pausing only for the EU Cup in 2005, and has traditionally been a chance for countries with only one club or European leagues not yet at the stage of fielding an International Cup side to get a game against regional competitors. This year the format will be 9-a-side with one representative team allowed from each country. At least four countries in Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Finland are committed so far.

Further north, the year's second all-Europe 9-a-side championship, the EU Cup, is scheduled for September, hosted by the Hamburg Dockers. The tournament will be the second EU Cup, the first being held in London late 2005 and last year's tournament in France being cancelled.

The organisers of the EU Cup are hoping for at least 12 sides at this year's event - with around 8 (Spain, Catalonia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Austria, England and Wales) having expressed interest in attending so far. In a change of policy from the previous EU Cups, there will now be a limit of 10 Australians allowed in each 15-man squad.

Here we take a look at the state of play in some of the clubs and leagues around Europe. Some of the countries listed are not yet on the bill for the EU Cup, some that are on the list don't appear here - but rest assured they haven't been forgotten and will be included in another article shortly!!

Austria

The Vienna Kangaroos, Austria's only club so far, are warming up for their own season, having recently played a match against German power club Munich on March 17th. Reportedly, the game between the Austrians and Germany's most powerful club was fairly tight for the first three quarters until Munich pulled away to win fairly comfortably. In addition, the Vienna Roos will again be representing Austria in the second edition of their tri-series against Croatia and the Czech Republic.

A group of players based in Graz (hometown of Arnold Schwarzenegger) are hoping to found Austria's second club this year.

France

The French will send a squad both to the CEAFL and EU Cups, with Laurent Caravel from Paris telling WFN that they will send a squad composed 100% of Frenchmen. For developmental reasons, he believes that it is important to create a team which can ensure that French footy continues despite a fairly high turnover of Australians.

In other French news, the St Estève Saints will not be joining the Catalan league this year, although there is still an official desire on the French side to create a southern league featuring the Saints, the new French side in Tarbes, the Catalans and the Madrid Bears in the near future.

Spain vs Catalonia

Interestingly, teams representing both Spain and Catalonia are included on the list for the EU Cup - despite Catalonia being part of Spain and the team entitled "Spain" presumably representing only the Madrid Bears club. The Madrid Bears formed the bulk of the Spanish team which appeared at the 2005 International Cup, with the Catalans officially citing financial reasons for not being part of the squad. Shortly thereafter, a Catalan selection visited London for the EU Cup in lieu of the Madrid Bears, who withdrew late from the tournament.

This will be the first time in some years that both the Catalan and Castillian (Madrid) footy scenes will have played any matches anywhere near each other - could this perhaps be an opportunity to bring the two camps together and form a national footballing body? The Spanish side at the last international cup was somewhat undermanned and included some players from the Melbourne Spanish community to fill out the numbers - and even so they were forced to forfeit a match late in the tournament as mounting injuries meant they couldn't put a full side on the park. The AFL have previously stated they will only recognise one controlling body in each nation, so unless steps are made to create a central body, the Spanish side (Madrid) will probably face the same problems and the Catalans will miss out on an opportunity to represent their country at the highest level.

With the inclusion in the side of both the best Madrilenos and the best Catalan players they could potentially bring a full-strength squad of local players to Melbourne in 2008.

Croatia

The Croats, represented by the Zagreb Hawks, have shown huge potential in their relatively short history, winning last year's tri-series against Austria and the Czech Republic and putting up a valiant effort against the West London Wildcats in Rijeka recently, going down 14.11.95 to West London 21.13.139. Although the Hawks played with two extra men on the pitch, this was a great effort compared with some of the demolition jobs the expat-heavy London clubs have dished out around Europe on pre-season tour matches.

There has been plenty of talk about the potential second club in Rijeka, possibly to appear this year, although in the meantime Zagreb will continue to double as the Croatian Knights.

Denmark and Sweden

The Danes remain probably one of the strongest three leagues in Europe, together with the Aussie-rich BARFL Premiership league and the somewhat inconsistent ARFL of Ireland. Denmark showed itself still well ahead of the Swedes and the Germans in last year's tri-series - this being played with full sides and (mostly) International Cup eligibility rules, although Sweden are improving strongly.

There will probably be a Swedish team at the EU Cup, but the date clashes with the DAFL's preliminary final weekend - meaning there won't be an official DAFL side and the Swedish side may be light on for players from Scania, Sweden's biggest footballing area.

Great Britain and Ireland

So far, two sides from the British Isles have been listed as starters, these being ARUK's England Dragonslayers and the Welsh Red Dragons. Scotland and Ireland may yet both make an appearance, the Scots attended the 2005 EU Cup and an Irish club side considered attending. We haven't heard what the plans of the SARFL or ARFLI are on this event, time will tell.

The Welsh scene has been a very positive story for footy in Britain, with the five-team Welsh league starting in around a month's time. The league is being partnered by the SANFL, the league formed of the top local clubs in Adelaide and feeding into the AFL's Crows and Power. The two sides from Cardiff and the sides from Swansea and Newport will all be aligned with an SANFL club, the fifth side in the league will be the Swindon Devils from the English West Country.

More news on footy in Britain, including fixtures of all leagues, will be on the site shortly.

Germany

Finally - to the host nation Germany. The AFLG produced its first-ever "official national team" last year, and although they were soundly beaten by both Sweden and Denmark, they will be back to take on their northern neighbours in a tri-series again this year.

In addition to the tri-series, some members of the AFLG's Dockers are on the organising committee of the EU Cup. At a local level, the league has returned to five clubs, with the Strasbourg side (from the French side of the border) withdrawing for the 2007 season. Some Strasbourg members have, however, stated on a German-language footy forum that they may return in 2008 once they have had a chance to rebuild at the local level.

Unconfirmed rumours are that Prague and Brussels may have discussed joining the AFLG, but were knocked back due to the extra financial burdens this would add to the league.

More to come, Czech Republic, Finland and "others" will be discussed soon...