World Footy News

Australian Rules football in Colombia, South America, is about to take another leap forward with the upcoming visit by the Austin Crows from Texas. The entire footy community across Colombia is excited at the upcoming ‘Fossil Cup’ to be played Saturday week at the Los Pinos Polo Club in western Bogotá.

According to Bogotá Bulldogs president, Paddy Smallwood, the name of the event arises from “the 'Campbell-Wiltshire Fossil Cup' [which] represents the long in the tooth legends of our game and clubs, who forever retire next game, push it a yard too far, yet remain the fabric and glue of any great club.”

The match itself will be the first of three international games this year for the Bogotá Bulldogs. In May the Denver Bulldogs arrive from Colorado for a very canine clash. Later in the year the 2019 Andes Cup will be played against the Santiago Saints from Chile to again decide the best team in South America.

The matches represent a high point in the rapid development of the game in Colombia. As well as these matches, AFL Colombia has also overseen the growth of their own three-club competition and recently saw the first ever women’s AFL match in South America.

The Austin Crows have been one of the USAFL’s most consistently successful clubs, both at regional and national level. Since their inception in 2002, the Crows have won the USAFL Nationals tournament four times (2013, 2015, 2016 and current champions from 2018) which puts them second only to the Denver Bulldogs with eight national titles.

With that record of accomplishment behind them, the Crows will start favourites to take the inaugural ‘Fossil Cup’, though the locals in Bogotá believe that the Bulldogs, with home ground advantage and an increasingly talented player list, are ripe for pulling off an international upset in the first ever continental clash between South American and North American clubs.

The historic match will be played on Saturday 27th April at 1.00pm Bogotá time.