World Footy News

Mike MacFarlane had the following interesting story as to how he, a Canadian, came to holding a footy clinic in Skelleftea, Sweden, which is just below the Arctic Circle.

“First, you must know that my wife, Lotta was born and raised in Skelleftea and she has played in our women’s league for the last 3 years. Secondly, in 2008, we toured Australia with the Canadian Junior team, the Wolfpack. We met the Swedish team who was participating in their first International Cup.

I met their manager and asked if they had any thoughts of starting footy in the north of Sweden and he said that maybe I could get something going. Of course, because I live in Canada, I laughed this off - but the seed had been planted.

Then, this year, I was approached about doing a weekly footy show, by the local cable station. This got me thinking. With my wife and I planning a trip back to Sweden, this was a great time to do something both for the show and to introduce footy to northern Sweden.

So I approached my niece, Ebba Jansson, a Div. 3 soccer player to see if her club would be willing for me to conduct a footy clinic. They were very interested and so it was set. 18 girls fronted for a 2 hour skills clinic. Despite a bit of a language barrier, the girls performed extremely well.

Their athleticism came through and with a little coaching from myself and my daughter Hanna, they learnt very quickly. At the end of the skills session we played a mini game. After a quick group discussion the girls advanced to full tackling. Having an organized soccer background assisted in producing some passages of really good footy.

Afterwards the girls said that they loved the game and if it was available again the majority of them would get involved. I now hope that AFL Sweden is able to get someone placed in the north to help build and promote their product!”