World Footy News

Finland won back-to-back CEAFL Championships last weekend with a victory in the grand final over Austria, avenging an earlier defeat in the round-robin qualifying rounds. The four-team competition was hosted by Vienna and saw Finland, Austria and Croatia all win two matches in the qualifying rounds, Finland and Austria going through to the final on percentage. The event was staged in Austria and received some great exposure with a piece on local television, though footage from the 1991 SANFL Grand Final, a bloodbath between West Adelaide and North Adelaide remembered as possibly the most violent in the league's 130 year history may not have been the best advertisement for the sport. Let's hope the presenter (speaking in German) noted the game isn't usually like that. The report can be seen on Youtube here.

Full results of the matches follow. The games were played on a handicap system, whereby teams with more non-Australians were given extra points.

Game 1
Austria 11.6.72 + handicap (50) = 122 def Finland 11.8.74 + (32) = 106

Game 2
Croatia 11.5.71 + (40) = 111 def Czech Republic 9.5.59 + (12) = 71

Game 3
Finland 15.13.103 + (32) = 135 def Croatia 6.4.40 + (40) = 80

Game 4
Austria 7.1.43 + (50) = 93 def Czech Republic 12.6.78 + (12) = 90

Game 5
Croatia 9.5.59 + (40) = 99 def Austria 5.14.44 + (50) = 94

Game 6
Finland 15.7.102 + (32) = 134 def Czech Republic 11.6.72 + (12) = 84

Grand Final
Finland 11.9.75 + (32) = 107 def Austria 5.4.34 + (50) = 84