World Footy News

It's now less than a year until the 2014 AFL International Cup and one of the exciting features every three years is the anticipation of new footy nations making their Cup debut.  With rapid growth over recent tournaments it's possible there will be a plateauing in new teams, but if Kashif Bouns gets his way we'll see the entry of the Pakistan Shaheens to represent that country for the first time.

Kashif is an AFL Multicultural Officer but takes his passion for the game and his original homeland beyond business hours.

"I have been working in Football for last three years and when I first came across the International Cup in 2011, I straightaway dreamt of entering a Pakistani team, however it just remained a dream until, Tony Woods and Peter Romaniw (AFL International section) who work with me in Game Development department started preparing for the 2014 tournament. I had a chat with them and understood what the requirements were. I had some meeting with the leaders in Pakistani community and also touched base with Ash Nugent (President of Masala Football Club, a key off field member of the IC11 Indian team and a worldfootynews.com alumnus) before I really got going".

With the Euro Cup finished for another year, some teams are going home happy, some disappointed. That is the nature of any competitive sport. However, the individual performances can probably only be truly measured against the expectations of the teams themselves. In subsequent articles this may become more clear, however our starting point for a review is based on a cold, hard statistical analysis of results.

Below is a nation by nation look at performances. As an exercise, anyone interested in how this sits with the teams' hopes can read the series of preview articles published over the past few weeks, where nations listed their goals for the Axios Euro Cup.

The England Dragonslayers are European 9-a-side champions, after defeating hosts France in the final of the 2013 Axios Euro Cup held in Bordeaux yesterday.

The bronze went to Croatia, who defeated Italy in the third-place playoff.

Full tournament report will appear in the coming days!

Every year since 2005 World Footy News has displayed an extensive list of Grand Final Parties around the world. And with the 2013 AFL Grand Final being played next Saturday between Hawthorn and Fremantle we once again call for clubs around the world to send details of your party so that fans of the game in your city can watch the big game with you.

You can either post details as a comment below (you must register before you are able to post a comment) or email troy@worldfootynews.com - all these details will be collated as per previous years.

It’s almost time for the players to run out onto the fields at St Medard-en-Jalles. As the opening siren gets closer, World Footy News continues its series of articles looking at the preparation and prospects of the various nations competing at this year’s Axios Euro Cup in Bordeaux. This time we look at the story of the Spanish national team. Dani Ribas from the Spanish Bulls gives us a brief rundown.                                                       

The Journey:

“The 2013 season did not see new growth, but a consolidation of the game from last year. Unfortunately there’s no league in Spain [or] new teams, although we are working on that. It’s hard to recruit new people if you cannot promise them regular matches against other teams.  Basically, we are the same squad as previous Euro Cup editions.”

As we get closer to the event, World Footy News continues its series of articles looking at the preparation and prospects of the various nations competing at this year’s Axios Euro Cup in Bordeaux. This time we look at the story of the French national team, and host nation.  Thomas Urban, President of the Comitê National de Football Australien, gives us a rundown.

The Journey:

“This season has been good to the French League. Seven teams were involved in the championship and football starts to be known in cities where we have clubs. We hope that this Euro Cup will be a chance for us to shine in the country and not just Bordeaux Bombers but every club will take benefit of it.”

In response to our recent article which explored the changes to AFL Middle East for the upcoming season, new Operations Manager, Tyron (Ty) Farrell has provided World Footy News with his preview of the upcoming season. Not only does Ty look again at changes to the organisation, he also provides his unique insight into the teams and their prospects.

So the 2013/2014 AFL Middle East Season is almost upon us and the teams have been hitting the pre- season trail pretty hard over the summer in anticipation.

This year the season has made a few major changes with Walid Melhem stepping down as Operations Manager as he moved back to Australia with work. Walid worked extremely hard over the last few years and should be proud of the work that he has done in getting the league to where it is today.  From all in the region, we wish Walid all the best for his return to Australia and we look forward to continuing to build on the foundations that he left us.

As we get closer to the event, World Footy News continues its series of articles looking at the preparation and prospects of the various nations competing at this year’s Axios Euro Cup in Bordeaux. This time we look at the story of the Italian national team.  Nicola Giampaulo, former coach of the team representing AFL Italia, gives us his insights.

The Journey:

“I am very excited with our prospects for this year’s Euro Cup.

The past 12 months have been stable and this is alone a positive outcome. We are finding it difficult to introduce new teams to the national comp but on the other hand we have not lost any either. Financial limitations are the biggest problem for the clubs and this makes it difficult facing costs and does not allow much promotion of the game.”

The England Dragonslayers are the only home nations side making the trip to Bordeaux for this year's Axios Euro Cup. Coach Robert Fielder spoke to WFN about the highly-facied English side's chances, with the Slayers hoping to bounce back after a disappointing 3rd place last year.

The Journey

"3rd in 2012 wasn’t quite what we’d planned for, but that’s the beauty of sport. We didn’t quite find our rhythm on the day, in control of the semi, two inaccuracies and it was all over. Since then, there has been an influx of new players and we’ve just finished our successful 2nd national weekend training camp.

"The camp is a superb opportunity to develop 30 players from all around the country using video analysis, game sense practices and games, plus a probables v possibles match to make final selection easier. There are a some established players whose circumstances have changed and hope to push for places next year."

"Finance and flexible employers (many are not) are a big issue for many players and especially staff potential attendance at these tournaments. It would benefit all to be recognised as a NGB sport to enable all the hard working volunteers in the sport to perform with at least one less hand tied behind their back. Nevertheless, we’re looking forward to what will be a tournament as exciting as ever."

In the next instalment of our series of articles looking at the preparation and prospects of the various nations competing at this year’s Axios Euro Cup in Bordeaux, we look at the story of the Irish Warriors.  Pat Leavy, acting team manager of the Bordeaux bound squad, gives us his insights.

The Journey:

“The ARFLI 2013 league season has been the most competitive since the league's formation.  We currently have six full time clubs spread across the country and we have now expanded into the universities and hopefully we will see new talent emerge from this pool of players. Finals footy culminated in the South Dublin Swans winning a very exciting Grand Final overturning a 26 point half time deficit to win by 20 points.  The Grand Final epitomised all that is good in the Irish League – hard but fair contests, great fielding and score taking and a never say die attitude.”

“This will be Ireland’s fourth participation in the Euro Cup having first competed in Milan in 2010 and we hope to continue our good record in the competition.”