World Footy News

The Australian Football League Germany will return to a six team competition in 2011, with the return of the Hamburg Dockers to the main draw.

A two division structure was implemented in 2009, to help Stuttgart ease into the league, allow Berlin a season to rebuild, and give the reserve teams from power clubs Rheinland and Munich somewhere to play. This hasn't been repeated since, with clubs instead starting to move towards the "metro league" model of concentrating on 9-a-side local footy between the national league fixtures.

Germany's first 9-a-side metro league was founded by the Munich Roos last year, with the squad divided into three teams and over 50 players playing a match in the Bayernliga over the course of the 2010 season. This year, the Rheinland Lions and Berlin Crocodiles are looking at starting their own metro competitions.

David Mudge from the Roos says "the Bayernliga was a huge success last year, generating a pile of new recruits to the sport. We thought about expanding to four teams but in the end will keep it to the established three, with the exception that if Nürnberg get a team together, or even half a dozen guys, they have a standing invitation to participate as the fourth team."

German national team manager Benno Bock says "the Metro-Comp idea is really kicking off. Besides Munich, Rheinland and Berlin are planning it for 2011. A good move. It was really good to see how the Munich officials gave insight to their successfull methods last general meeting. They did so knowing they might lose an advantage towards the two other stronger teams, but they did it in the spirit of the game and credit to that."

"Unfortunately we cannot participate at the IC. We do see the benefits of participating at the IC, and also in sending a team to Australia, but we also believe that we are not ready for that. We have to focus on our European setting and even that is quite a challange for us," Bock says.

Instead, the Germans are planning a number of other events for their national team squad, starting with their annual training camp in Fulda in March, lead by national coach Troy Pedder.

So far, the the only full field game planned for the national team this year is against France on the 11th of June. "For France it will be a good test before the IC and for us the biggest opportunity to show our international standings in 2011. For both teams it could be the start of a great rivalry," Bock says.

At the end of July, a second training camp and the now-yearly 9-a-side match against the Czech Lions will be held in Mitteleschenbach, Franconia.

With growth headed in the right direction and the growing number of other European sides making the trip, perhaps in 2014 we will see the Black Eagles make their debut Down Under.