World Footy News

The Iceland Ravens made their debut appearance at last year's EU Cup in Croatia, impressing on debut with their almost all-local side pushing the Netherlands and Germany and having a solid win over Italy. Since then, the Icelanders have been training indoors over the northern winter and are planning for the IceAFL's first domestic season.

Icelandic Aussie Rules stalwart Friðgear "Fritz" Ásgeirsson was recently contacted by a group hoping he'd be able to help them also start the sport of rugby union in Iceland. Both sports are at a similar stage of development in the country, with the Aussie Rules club having about 25 regulars currently training and the rugby club getting around 20 players to its first training session last autumn.

Fritz has been appointed chairman of the new organisation, and says the partnership would see the groups share facilities such as grounds, as well as cross-promotion and a schedule that allows people to play both sports.

Fritz says that he was already acquainted with some of the rugby fans who have come on board. "I know a few of them and they know about me. They have at least twice tried to set up shop and get Rugby going in Iceland but unfortunately failed. So now that we have a group of 25 strong training Aussie Rules and we're setting up a league, they asked if I could do for them what I have done for Footy."

"I suggested that we would structure them similarly to us and then add a parachute organization on top of the two leagues. That organization will then work on getting fields, facilities, equipment, promote the sports, gather funding and so on for the benefit of both sports. I was asked to chair that organization, which I accepted."

First step in creating the new structure will be a meet-and-greet this weekend between the Aussie Rules and Rugby camps. "We've found facilities for the Rugby guys to train, same place as ours, and we have decided to find a separate time slot for them. This is as opposed to the original idea that we would share training facilities, because some guys said they'd want to train both sports and that would mean they'd have to choose between them."

The IceAFL's Australian rules season will start with a cup competition in March, designed to introduce new players to the sport before the start of the regular season in May. Fritz has located a potential field in the town of Mosfellsbær near Reykjavik, and believes they have a bigger chance of getting the field if they apply together with the Rugby guys.

The three yet-to-be-named IceAFL clubs would be loosely based on towns, suburbs or municipalities around Reykjavik. The players currently in training and new recruits from the Cup in March will be divided between the three teams, aiming to keep the competition's first season as even as possible.

Regarding the ratios of locals to expats, Fritz says the Aussie Rules squad are over 90% Icelandic. In contrast, he estimates the rugby guys are around 60% expats to 40% locals, although he hopes this will change quickly and attract more Icelanders.

"The Rugby facebook page has 220 members and the Aussie Rules page has 170. Of those 170, we have had around 50 show up for training at some point. When they held a training and touch rugby session in the fall, the rugby guys had around 20 people show up. I am optimistic that we can have a 3 team league each for rugby and aussie rules this summer with around 30-40 people playing each sport - with some overlap though, maybe around 60 total."

"The partnership will definitely help in a multitude of ways. Promotion, field and facilities, getting sponsors, coordination, youth work etc. I am really looking forward working together with these guys."

Anyone interested in knowing more about the IceAFL can contact them via their Facebook page.

The Iceland Ravens at the 2009 EU Cup