20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

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20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Sunday, September 25 2011 @ 02:57 pm ACST
Contributed by: Aaron Richard
Views: 3,683

The AFL Europe / EAFA has confirmed the entries for the 9-a-side 2011 Euro Cup, with 20 teams to take the pitch in Belfast, Northern Ireland on the weekend of October 8th and 9th.

19 national teams, including debutants Portugal, Norway, Poland and Russia will be making the journey to Belfast, with the EU Crusaders combined side rounding out the 20-team competition.

The full list of nations attending is: Austrian Avalanche, Catalunya Almogávers, Croatia Knights, Cymru Red Dragons, England Dragonslayers, European Crusaders, Finland Icebreakers, France Coqs, Germany Black Eagles, Iceland Ravens, Irish Warriors, Italy Azzurri, Netherlands Flying Dutchmen, Norway Trolls, Polish Bison, Portugal, Russian Czars, Scottish Clansmen, Spanish Bulls and Swedish Elks.

The Euro Cup tournament will be playing out on Saturday 8th, with the annual European General Assembly and development forum following on Sunday 9th and Monday 10th.

For more information, visit the tournament website here.

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20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Sunday, September 25 2011 @ 10:23 pm ACST

I was going to question "take the pitch" since that's not an Aussie Rules term, but being 9-a-side I guess it probably is on pitches.

20 teams is great. So who is not going to be there that we may have hoped for? Looks like Denmark, the Czechs and Switzerland are the only ones missing that have established programs.

Interesting to note that 19 national sides (*) is one more than at the men's International Cup a few weeks ago, which just goes to show how the game has spread in Europe.

* OK, Great Britain is broken up into 3 here compared with IC11.

Ireland would be hot favourites I guess, although they were last year if I recall correctly and Croatia won. Might be different on home turf.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Rog
on Monday, September 26 2011 @ 08:04 am ACST

I hope this isn't a controversial comment but i would have thought Northern Ireland could have entered their own team seperate to the southerners seeing that they are hosting the event. They are two countries becoming one where as we have one country becoming two (spain/catalunya) or one country becoming three (Wales/England/Scotland).

Any insights into why Denmark have chosen not to come?

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Harley Vague
on Monday, September 26 2011 @ 10:55 am ACST

I can't remember hearing of a Northern Ireland side in other sports though they must exist .It's not that strange because GB plays both as a country and it's member entities , but I do remember a bit of a problem in the past with a Catalan side not being a country and they had to apply through Spain .Really it boils down to who the players want to represent , but would that mean accepting combined sides?

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Rog
on Monday, September 26 2011 @ 11:57 am ACST

Northern Ireland always represent themselves in Football (soccer) but do play combined with the rest of Ireland in Rugby. I guess seeing that the Belfast Redbacks play in the Irish AFL comp, then it makes sense for the to just have one rep team for international tournaments.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Monday, September 26 2011 @ 12:32 pm ACST

Northern Ireland competes as a stand-alone entity in soccer and the Commonwealth Games. Not in any other sports that I know of though. Olympics they are part of the UK team.

In Aussie Rules, they (by way of their sole club, the Belfast Redbacks) have always been a part of the Ireland national team.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Monday, September 26 2011 @ 12:37 pm ACST

In addition, the Irish national cricket, hockey and rugby teams also represent the whole of Ireland, ie both the Republic and the North.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: tomcleary
on Saturday, October 01 2011 @ 08:11 am ACST

Rog, I think it is a great thing that in a lot of sports the island of Ireland is able to come together and is not divided - as is the case for example in soccer. Most players in Ireland (unlike myself) come from a Gaelic football background where all of the counties of Ireland are involved. I still play rugby, which is another great example of how Ireland can come together and play as one island. I don't think the boys from Belfast would be too happy having to play on their own and not having an opportunity to play for Ireland. It would create a political divide that we are trying to move away from in Ireland. If you're interested there are a number of articles about soccer players born in Northern Ireland who are now nominating to play for the republic of Ireland - which has been allowed since the Good Friday agreement. But it does create a political issue in what should be a sporting matter.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Saturday, October 01 2011 @ 08:25 am ACST

I agree entirely with Tom - and to add to it, there's an important difference between the status of Northern Ireland and the status of Wales and Scotland which a lot of Australians might not understand.

Namely - Wales and Scotland are historic entities with a long tradition of a separate national identity to the English.

Northern Ireland, however, is an entity that essentially springs from the Irish war of independence and civil war in the 1920s, and it's still a sore spot for many Irishmen, both in the north and in the Republic, that the whole of Ireland isn't one political body.

Emphasising the division just reopens the wounds of the violence between loyalists and republicans that has gone on for so long - which is another reason that in almost all sports the whole of Ireland is represented as one team.

Furthermore - saying that the Euro Cup is being hosted by "Northern Ireland" isn't correct. It's being hosted by the ARFLI, which governs footy in the whole of the island of Ireland.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Saturday, October 01 2011 @ 12:08 pm ACST

But of course politics is everywhere, even delving into this most posters are kind of suggesting it's good that they play as one, which in itself could be seen as ignoring the wishes of some people.

Which is why I think it's better that we generally steer clear of the issue altogether and I generally just say that the players and Leagues should do what they want, and as far as I know, in this case, AFL GB are happy for Ireland to compete as one, ARFLI is happy with it, and unless I hear otherwise I'd assume the players are mostly happy with it.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Monday, September 26 2011 @ 10:03 pm ACST

Also no Andorra this year - include them with Czech Rep, Switzerland and Denmark you get at least 23 Euro nations who can potentially field a side.

24 if the Brussels Saints or a new club could restart footy in Belgium.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Tuesday, September 27 2011 @ 10:38 am ACST

Brett

Good point about the numbers but it is a little easier to find the cash to fund a 9-a-side team and even to travel around Europe is cheaper than to travel around the world to Aussie with an 18-a-side team.

Moscow to Amsterdam is closer than Adelaide to Sydney and although I don't know the cost of a plane or train trip from Amsterdam to Moscow I'm guessing it wouldn't be any more costly than the Adelade /Sydney journey :-)

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Tobietta Rhyman
on Monday, September 26 2011 @ 05:41 pm ACST

Finally got a reply from AFL Europe about women's teams competing in the Euro Cup- of course Ireland are and apparently the Swiss are putting a team out too. So far no sign of Italy but fingers crossed!

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Little Pommy Girl

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AFL England Women's Football Co-ordinator; WFN Female Football Writer

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Monday, September 26 2011 @ 07:26 pm ACST

I was wondering about that - my guess was they were extending the confirmation date before announcing the women's teams.

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AFL England Women's Football Co-ordinator; WFN Female Football Writer

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Josh Davey
on Tuesday, September 27 2011 @ 05:34 am ACST

Please don't describe Britain as 1 country becoming 3. If anything it is 3 countries becoming 1

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AFL England Women's Football Co-ordinator; WFN Female Football Writer

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Michael Christiansen
on Tuesday, September 27 2011 @ 08:41 am ACST

Aust Footy is pretty new at this 'international thing' - but, when you consider that the vastly more (if you listen to some people) international game of Rugby (Union) had a European flagship '5 Nations' (tournament/cup) from 1940-1999, and the 5 nations included England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

And that the Rugby League World Cup pads itself out via including England, Wales, Scotland as well as such RL powerhouse nations as the Cook Islands and Lebanon and Russia (and in many cases we know the RL team is effectively an alternate activity for RU players).

So, the 'world of Australian football' is in my mind going pretty okay althings given. And, anywhere else in the world, the trans-continental AFL competition in Australia would probably be crossing at least 2 if not more international borders.

My point being - don't feel guilty about counting England, Scotland, Wales separately in the EU Cup. And let's not have any inferiority complex about the game internationally.

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AFL England Women's Football Co-ordinator; WFN Female Football Writer

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Rog
on Tuesday, September 27 2011 @ 08:48 am ACST

I think people missed my point a bit here. Im all for England, Wales and Scotland having seperate Footy teams. My point was seeing that Ireland and Northern Ireland are seperate countries why can't they each have there own aussie rules teams for this 9-a-side Euro Cup. Im all for following the Football (FIFA) definitions of a country.

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AFL England Women's Football Co-ordinator; WFN Female Football Writer

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Tuesday, September 27 2011 @ 10:30 am ACST

Hey Rog, I don't think people missed your point, it just lead us to an interesting side discussion. But the bottom line for Ireland is that from everything I've seen the players and League are happy to compete as one team, so there's no reason to split up.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Tuesday, September 27 2011 @ 10:17 am ACST

Michael Christiansen

Hear! Hear! with you 100%

Cam.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Thursday, September 29 2011 @ 09:04 am ACST

Update - it looks like Poland and Portugal won't be making it this year, the usual problems of getting the funds together to travel.

However, it looks like a Danish side will be making the journey.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Jörg Pareigis
on Thursday, September 29 2011 @ 11:21 pm ACST

From what I understand, there won't be a Norwegian side either.
/Jörg

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Friday, September 30 2011 @ 12:00 am ACST

Ahhh international footy. It's why we were just happy that all the teams in the final draw turned up at IC11.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

20 teams confirmed for Euro Cup 2011

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Friday, September 30 2011 @ 10:12 am ACST

I guess the Norwegian fellas spent all their hard earned spondoolics on their trip to Iceland for the friendly earlier in the year.

Still, should be a good show in Belfast, and it looks like the Russian's are still on board for their debut.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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