World Footy News

The AFL Sweden has announced its squad for the 2010 European Chapionships, with coach Daniel McClaer naming 26 players in what the league is rating as the strongest Swedish Elks side assembled to date.

Officially announced via the Swedish Footy Show, the squad is dominated by players from southern Sweden, with the Helsingborg Saints and Port Malmö Maulers providing sixteen players between them in the 26-man squad. The Göteborg Beserkers from the west have five representatives, the Stockholm league four and the Karlstad Eagles one.

Coach McClaer says this is the first time ever that they have had to do a proper selection process for the Swedish national team, with the majority of the squad chosen from national selection trials held on May 15th in Stockholm.

Captaining the Elks will be Johan Lantz from the Helsingborg Saints. Previous Sweden captain and Scandinavian footy veteran Andreas Svensson is also in the squad, along with another eight members of the Elks' 2008 International Cup team.

The Elks also have some international elements, with Englishman Daniel Scotford named alongside Americans Matt McMahan and Ross Levesque in the main squad, and Irishmen Aidan O'Reilly and Mark Rattigan listed as emergencies.

The Elks' draw sees them open the tournament against Croatia at midday on August 1st, followed by a clash with Germany two days later, then the final game of the pool rounds against Ireland on August 5th. The Elks and Irish would be early favourites to defeat both Croatia and Germany, meaning their clash on August 5th could see the winner go straight to the gold medal match. Whilst the Irish have traditionally been the team to beat in Europe, the home team Elks will be very keen to prove that they can match it with all comers.

The full squad list and Swedish Footy Show clip follow.

Emergencies: Anton Tellström (Helsingborg), Mattias Ewald (Karlstad), Mick Kelly (Stockholm), Mats Wurmbach (Stockholm), Fred Anstrup (Port Malmö), Niklas Jonsson (Stockholm), Aidan O'Reilly (Port Malmö), Mark Rattigan (Port Malmö)

Coach: Daniel McClaer