World Footy News

The AFL today released the seventeenth AIS-AFL Academy squads.

The 61 players will receive an AIS-AFL Academy scholarship and will come together four times over the next 12 months for training camps. Both squads will also travel overseas again, one to NZ and one to Europe.

The Level One squad was selected following the NAB AFL Under-16 Championships. They will be coached by AFL Engagement and Talent Co-ordinator Chris Johnson.

Sweden's win over Croatia on day two of the European Championships has lifted them to 11th Ranking above Denmark. Ironically the win against Croatia has left the two nations with identical rating points (39.55) although Croatia has two more matches to qualify to be fully Ranked.

Major Australian bank NAB are looking for multilingual footy fans to broadcast the 2013 AFL Grand Final live in languages other than English.

As part of their "Footify" project to grow the game throughout Australia, they hope to have the Grand Final broadcast live in at least 10 different languages, and are looking for suitably skilled fans to apply to do the job.

If that sounds of interest to you (and presumably there are a fair number of WFN readers who might qualify) then all the information is available here!

The 2013 Solomon Islands AFL Grand Final is set to go this Thursday afternoon. With the White River Demons set to take on the more fancied Central Eagles in the big game - starting 4.30pm on the KGVI School Oval.

The Central Coast Eagles went down narrowly last year in the 2012 Grand Final by 4 pts to the Rove Magpies. Undoubtedly they will be keen to go one better this year.

The second day's play at the DCU Sportground in Dublin has been completed, with the higher seeds triumphing in each match, though not without some strong challenges.

Sweden defeated Croatia in the first match of the day, despite the Croatians making a good contest of it. The next match then saw Great Britain comfortably account for Germany in the first-ever encounter between the two nations.

The evening's play ended with Denmark threatening a major upset, leading the Irish at every change before the Warriors were able to overtake them in the last quarter. The Vikings will surely be disappointed, after similarly being overrun in the last quarter of the round 1 match against Great Britain.

Sweden	1.3	3.7	4.10	5.11 (41)
Croatia	1.1	2.1	4.1	5.2 (32)
Great Britain	3.1	7.7	7.7	9.12 (66)
Germany	0.1	0.2	2.3	2.3 (15)
Ireland	0.1	2.3	3.5	7.7 (49)
Denmark	4.0	5.1	6.2	6.3 (39)

Full match reports with best players and goal kickers are now available on the tournament website:
Warriors deny Vikings again
Bulldogs reach their First Final
Elks win over Knights

The GB Bulldogs have now booked a spot in Saturday's final. Their opponent will likely be Ireland, although there is still another round of group matches to play and a win for Croatia over the Irish could change the standings.

The 2012-2013 French season has ran its course, officially closing on the 22nd of June with the annual French Cup.

In the development league, consisting of France's newest and struggling teams, the Montpellier Fire Sharks won their second title in a row. Unfortunately the Marseille Dockers, could not play any of their games this season, effectively making this year's edition of the development league a two team contest.

Montpellier won their first confrontation against Cergy in a one way game at home during the winter. The decider was played in Cergy a few month later with the travelling team narrowly winning the game to secure their second title: Cergy Coyotes 10.8 (68) – 9.17 (71) Montpellier Fire Sharks.

In the Super league, things turned out for the worst for reigning champions Bordeaux. At the end of the winter the Bombers were on top of the ladder hoping to hold on their crown. Unfortunately for them at string of defeats at home against the Toulouse Hawks and the Paris Cockerels put an end to their hopes of title.

Our unofficial World Rankings have been updated following day one of the European Championships in Dublin and the 49th Parallel Cup Match in Edmonton.

Read on to see the latest rankings.

West Adelaide and East Fremantle will contest the Grand Final for the 2013 FOXTEL Cup at AAMI Stadium tomorrow night, August 6, for bragging rights as the best state-league team in the national knock-out competition.

West Adelaide, under the tutelage of former Hawthorn premiership player Andy Collins, are currently third on the SANFL ladder after qualifying for the Foxtel Cup by reaching last year’s Grand Final, while East Fremantle, under former All Australian captain Steve Malaxos, are also in third position on the WAFL ladder.

The Foxtel Cup brings together the best state league teams from each state across the country and West Adelaide is bidding to be the first SANFL winner after Williamstown (VFL) won the inaugural competition in 2011 and Claremont (WAFL) claimed victory last year.

Chen Shao Liang may ring some memory bells with our readers. He was the Chinese athlete identified at the AFL's Combine in China last year and he subsequently took part in the main Combine in Melbourne.

This week he flew into Australia and on the weekend suited up for the Southern Dragons in the VAFA. The Dragons are a club that is mainly based around Melbourne's Asian immigrant community, in particular having a good number of Vietnamese players.

After trialling with the Carlton Football Club last year, Ciaran Byrne was back at Princes Park again in the past couple of weeks and has been confirmed as the latest Irish import to the AFL. Byrne will be officially taken in the AFL's national draft later this year as an International Rookie.

Following the last two notable failures in John Heslin and Ciaran Kilkenny at Richmond and Hawthorn respectively to make it past preseason, clubs may have become understandably shy of bringing out young homesick Gaelic footballers.

The Bachar Houli Program, which provides mentoring, education and leadership sessions for students in Islamic schools, and the opportunity to play football and compete for the Bachar Houli Cup has received a grant of $156,000 from the Australian Government. The grant allows the program to continue for at least one more year.

The announcement was made last week by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Kate Lundy.

According to the AFL's Jason Mifsud, “the Bachar Houli Program engages 30 Islamic colleges nationally and more than 5000 participants annually. It plays an integral role in fostering greater cultural understanding and promoting social inclusion.”

The program is considered a great success and has been shortlisted for a Beyond Sport Award; which seek to find the best projects from around the world that use sport to address social issues within communities.