World Footy News

As befits a cultural and linguistic region that crosses numerous national borders, the Lliga de Futbol Australià de Catalunya (LFAC) became the first Tri-National footy league in the world last year, with clubs from the Spanish (southern) side, the French (northern) side and Andorra.

This year, the LFAC is planning to expand to five clubs, with the Cornellà Bocs, Belfry Valls, Andorra Crows and Perpignan Tigers to be joined by new club Cossetans Alt Camp.

The Catalans look set to continue as a stand-alone entity in European Aussie Rules, having been admitted as full members of the EAFA at the foundation meeting in Frankfurt in recognition of the fact that they had been operating as an independent organisation for a number of years and receive considerable support for their national representative team from the government of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia.

The LFAC's Pere Casan Bonet says the Catalans were disappointed to miss out on the EU Cup in 2009 and are already taking steps towards mounting a challenge for both the 16-a-side European Championships in August and the 9-a-side EU Cup in October.

"We held a meeting last December to try to reflect on the 2009 season and prepare for 2010. Since we could not go to the EU Cup last year, we wanted to make sure we could attend it in 2010 and the meeting also revolved around this subject."

"2010 will probably see an increase in teams for the LFAC. We are still waiting for confirmation from all the teams that applied to participate in the league on whether they will accept all the new conditions to be included - an inscription fee, agreement with the European established rules - and nothing can be made official until then. But if everything goes according to plan, we will be 5 teams for this year's LFAC."

The 2010 LFAC will start the first weekend of March, with the finals scheduled for June. The five teams in the competition will include three from the Spanish region of Catalonia - the Barcelona-based Cornellà Bocs, foundation club Belfry Valls and Cossetans Alt Camp, a new team created around former members of the Belfry Valls.

The Andorra Crows and Perpignan Tigers are hoping to be back in the LFAC for the summer season, after competing in the French national league over the northern winter. However, Pere indicates that Perpignan are still not 100% certain to re-enter the league.

"If Perpignan cannot participate, we will probably still be 4 teams like last year. Whether we are 4 or 5, the schedule of rounds for this year will see all teams play against each other twice in the home & away season, but all teams will travel to one location to play the two games of each round there, and then there will be a compulsory 3rd period after the games for all teams in order to try to strengthen the relationship between all players by drinking and chatting in the bar and thus trying to avoid violence."

"We still have not decided if Catalonia will try to participate in the EC2010 or only in the October EU Cup. It will mainly depend on the economic help we might receive from our government."

A new website for the LFAC is coming soon - watch this space.