World Footy News

The Stuttgart Emus played host to the first game of the new tournament style format of the AFLG at their home ground in Esslingen. Esslingen is a short drive from Stuttgart and quite picturesque with an altstadt and the ground surrounded by a hilly backdrop. Two established teams in Stuttgart and Munich were playing as well as two teams new to the AFLG - Dresden and Ludwigsburg.

It was encouraging to see Dresden making the long trip. They had enjoyed their time in the Czech Republic and were now looking forward to playing in the AFLG. This is not unlike the Strasbourg Kangaroos that once played in the AFLG but now prefer to play in the French league even though travel is much more of a problem.

The weather was perfect for a day of football and the oval had a good grass cover. The ground is a proper oval, about 130m long, so for these 9-a-side games this is excellent but unfortunately the ground is no longer the full length it used to be for 16-a-side games. New volleyball courts are the culprit but at least workers preparing the new sites provided an interested gallery.

The new format was a success with both old and new teams being competitive with each other and the new teams being competitive with the old teams in the beggining. The short duration of the games kept interest high and blowouts to a minimum. Beggining with this format and switching to the traditional format does seem to be the way to go.

The only negative I heard was in regard to the loss of home games. I shouldn't say "only" because we all know how difficult it is to get a patch of grass in Europe and the number of home games is a justification factor. It does seem that the AFLG is continuing to make advances.