World Footy News

Cristiano Colizzi has played since 2009 for Roma Football Club in Italy, as well as handling media and a host of other things for AFL Italia. Also known as “Pint” (as in a pint of beer), he has provided World Footy News with a rundown of footy in Italy for the second of our “Through The Looking Glass” stories examining how footy has been going, and where to next for the game in countries and leagues across the world.

“As you remember AFL in Italy started in 2010 with four teams: Roma Football Club, Milano Footy Eagles, Genova Dockers and Lugano Bankers. Unfortunately in 2012 we lost Lugano Bankers (they quit playing AFL 9 per side) and in 2014 we also lost Genova Dockers who had just 5 or 6 players remaining.”

“So the Milano Footy Eagles acquired a few players from both Lugano and Genova. They have a great team for now! But the history says....not enough!”
“In 2014 we trained as usual from November to May even knowing that wouldn't be a premiership this year because we are now only two teams.”

“In trying to involve new cities/team in AFL Italy, we played the only match against Milano Footy Eagles in [city of] Pisa [home of the renowned Leaning Tower] on June 21st 2014, managed by Alessandro Bellagamba (he loves AFL !). Milano had a huge team, with [the existing] Milano players and some guys from Genova. Then they acquired some good new skills thanks to Frank Cichello, an Aussie-Italian guy.”

“We met in Pisa on a very hot morning. The match started with good intensity and by half time Rome was leading by one point. During third and big part of final quarter, Milano continued to score until 2 minutes from the end of the match. They were 11 points up.”

‘But as I said last year, Roma never surrender ...we scored a goal (Matteo Lorenzi) from an impossible side position and at the last ball up, our precious Enrico Castellini marked the ball in the midfield and kicked with all of us pushing with eyes… that ball...that ball was a goal! So, when the umpire’s whistle ended the game, we had won by 1 point!”

“It was the only official game in 2014, so we can say we're the best team in Italy, even this year.”

“One week later we said goodbye to our player and mate Jesse Steele, who went back down under with his family. He played 4 years with us, a great man.”

“In August, Rome hosted the first national team training session for 2014. Armando Colombo was the coach (he also works as commentary on Eurosport tv for AFL matches). We started training for AFL Europe Cup planned for October 4th in London.”

“Some guys from RFC [Roma Football Club] were in the expedition: Christian Tiranti (the RFC captain), Andrea Lorenzi, Enrico Castellini, Pierandrea Reale and Cristiano Colizzi (Me!).”

“After four training sessions held in Rome, Milan, Pisa and Genova, the Italian team was ready. We had a very tough pool against Germany, Netherlands and France. We lost the game against Germany , a very good team. But we won easily against Netherlands and, after a very tough game, against our "cousins", the French.”

“Thanks to this we qualified as second in the round and we went to the quarter finals where we met (OMG!) Ireland. Unnecessary saying that they defeated us, but we played a good match. Then we played against Sweden for 7th and 8th place. We were tired [and so] we lost and we closed the tournament 8th (of 16). The tournament was played in one day, from morning till evening. The final winner was a fantastic Denmark.”

“One of our players, Andrea Lorenzi, was chosen for the Best Tournament Team.”

Now, RFC is starting training for AFL Champions League planned for March 21st in Amsterdam. We'll play against club teams from all around Europe. We're all very excited for this and we [have] involved a lot of new (and younger) guys to play. We're training up 20 guys, and it's something really different from past season. It's something similar to our first year.”

“There might be two new teams, Pisa and Padova, for 2015, but it is way too early to tell. But for now our next target is going to the tournament in Amsterdam and to our best. And why not, kick some ass!”

“I want thank, also, Armando Colombo and Frank Cichello who gave me the opportunity to wear the Italian jumper in an official tournament...even if I'm 35 years old. Then I want to thank all Italian national team members like Filippo Alloisio, Denis Conte, Luigi and Tommaso Arndulfo [and the rest] and the guys from RFC and the coach Tim J Marks because they still believe in and trust this team. I also thank other wonderful guys like Simone Catini for supporting us.”

“I love this sport, I love my team. Support us for the Champions League in Amsterdam!”

Cristiano “Pint” Colizzi is certainly a colourful character and just the person needed to generate enthusiasm for Australian Rules football across Italy. For more information about AFL Italia or just the Roma Football Club, contact Cristiano at: http://www.facebook.com/RomaFootballClubAussie




Left" The Roma Football Club - Champions in 2013 and again "undefeated" in 2014