World Footy News

Late last year we posted the story AFL Europe proposed on a suggestion for the creation of AFL Europe and an associated true 18-a-side European Championships.

While the northern winter put footballs back in the cupboard until the snow melted, the concept of AFL Europe continued to be debated. Pinning down opinions on the record has been difficult, but the range of views has slowly become clearer.

In a series of articles we'll look at the shape the body may take and some of the views that have been expressed. At this stage it appears several of the larger European leagues are on side with the kind of proposal put forward by ARFLI and the AFL. Perhaps just as interesting is the more cautious view from one of Europe's middle leagues.

As reported in Gold Coast look the goods, only one major hurdle appeared to remain in the path of the Gold Coast Football Club being awarded the 17th AFL licence. That obstacle was that although the state Labor Government of Queensland had committed $60 million towards a rebuild of the Carrara stadium, the Liberal-National Party opposition would not commit.

Happily for the GC17 team, despite the LNP grabbing a small lead in opinion polls coming into the election, yesterday's vote appears to have delivered Labor a comfortable victory, albeit with a reduced margin. This should see the AFL quickly formally award the licence and the Gold Coast FC commence the next wave of off-field recruitment. The club begins in the primarily Victorian Under 18 competition this year, progressing to the VFL in 2010 and now look certain to debut in the AFL in 2011.

The AFL has also re-stated its intention to aim for a 2012 AFL debut for a western Sydney team. See Expansion plans on course.

In other news on the health of the AFL clubs, Port Adelaide recently put their hand out for assistance like that enjoyed by several Melbourne-based clubs. The AFL made it clear such help would not be forthcoming, saying they should negotiate a better stadium deal. However unlike the MCG and Docklands Stadium, Adelaide's AAMI Stadium is owned and operated by football. So unfortunately for football in South Australia, already struggling with crowds down at the Power, an aging main stadium, soccer on the rise and several SANFL clubs living on the edge, it appears the choice is between Port Adelaide and the local state league clubs. If the Power can't turn around their finances and the AFL don't come to the table, expect the SANFL clubs to be the ones that suffer. When the Crows formed, the league contracted from 10 to 9 clubs - perhaps we'll see that shrink again. So the great irony may be that SANFL fans will be barracking for arch enemy Port Adelaide in the hope they return to profit thus saving the need to strip cash from the local sides.

The AFL Commission today approved the immediate introduction of two Laws of the Game for the upcoming 2009 Toyota AFL Premiership Season, after a trial period through the 2009 NAB Cup and NAB Challenge matches. AFL Football Operations Manager Adrian Anderson, Chairman of the Laws of the Game Committee, said the Commission had approved the introduction of two rules trialled through this year's pre-season matches at its monthly meeting in Melbourne today:

a) A free kick can now be awarded for deliberate rushed behinds -- the benefit of the doubt will be given to the defender;

b) Umpires to award a 50 metre penalty against players who tackle, hold or make high contact against an opponent after the opponent has disposed of the football, for the purpose of preventing them from taking part in the next contest;

The trial rule regarding a no-go zone behind umpires at centre bounces will not be introduced in the 2009 Toyota AFL Premiership season but Mr Anderson said the current laws regarding contact with an umpire, where a player can be free-kicked or reported for making contact, would be strictly enforced to protect the safety of umpires. Mr Anderson said the AFL Laws Committee and the Football Operations Department had consulted extensively with the 16 AFL Clubs and the coaching and player groups since early September, and had again sought their feedback through this month after the rules had been trialled through the pre-season.

As we move towards the beginning of the 2009 USFooty season, USFootyNews.com will be previewing the top 10 teams in the USA as voted by the USFootyNews.com and WorldFootyNews.com pollsters.

Starting us off at number 10 are the Nashville Kangaroos. Nashville finished 2008 7-5 and out of the top 10 in the last USFootyNews.com poll, but still registering some votes. While they won all their home games, including a huge victory over 2008 MAAFL Champions Chicago United, they weren't able to get the road wins needed to win the MAAFL. At the Nationals in Colorado they went 1-2 with their only victory against the Las Vegas Gamblers.

This week the Australian Football League launches its 2009 Toyota AFL Premiership Season campaign. The campaign will depict the modern game where the players become the stars of the show, playing our game on the world’s biggest stages. Aptly titled In a League of its Own, the campaign positions Australian football as the ‘Strongest, Hardest, Highest, Fastest Game on Earth’. The line ‘In A League Of its Own’ was devised from the simple observation that what makes Australian football so exciting to watch is the unique combination of skills that can be found in the best sports from around the world. To view the campaign and gallery of images at the official site go to http://www.afl.com.au/inaleagueofitsown . No doubt the video will also be available on Youtube within minutes as well.

The campaign features players from all 16 AFL clubs - Nathan Bock (Adelaide), Jonathan Brown (Brisbane Lions), Daniel Merrett (Brisbane Lions), Chris Judd (Carlton), Leon Davis (Collingwood), David Hille (Essendon), Matthew Pavlich (Fremantle), Gary Ablett (Geelong), Lance Franklin (Hawthorn), Aaron Davey (Melbourne), James McDonald (Melbourne), Daniel Wells (North Melbourne), Chad Cornes (Port Adelaide), Brett Deledio (Richmond), Justin Koschitzke (St Kilda), Adam Goodes (Sydney Swans), Kieran Jack (Sydney Swans), Dean Cox (West Coast) and Adam Cooney (Western Bulldogs).

The Peres Peace Team will feature in a documentary about Australian Football that will screen on Channel 7 in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth at 8.30pm tomorrow and in Sydney and Brisbane on Sunday at 11am. The show, titled "The Essence of the Game", is hosted and narrated by Nathan Buckley. Rob Dickson, the man behind the documentary, actually spent time in Israel with the Peace Team in their preparation for the International Cup and followed their journey during their time in Melbourne in August last year.

According to the Yahoo!7 website, the program is an amazing all-access look into our unique Australian Game. For the first time cameras have been allowed into the dressing rooms during the entire season as we take a behind the scenes look at what makes football clubs tick including Hawthorn and Geelong on Grand Final day. We also celebrate the breadth of the game as we look at everything from kids to international teams and what footy means to them.

Regular achievers the Dubai Heat will take on the Muscat Magpies this Friday to conclude the inaugural AFL Middle East season. The two clubs meet at The Sevens, a rugby stadium on the outskirts of Dubai. For those interested, the day kicks of at 11am and will also include Auskick, a reserves match between the Heat and the Dubai Dragons, and a playoff for third between the Dubai Dingoes and Abu Dhabi Falcons. Local media have committed to covering the event in print, on television and a local sports radio program. Read on for a summary of the first season and a preview of the two Grand Finalists.

The newly-formed Perpignan Tigers have competed in their first game, against the Montpellier Firesharks on the 21st of February. The match was the first game in the Catalan city of Perpignan since 2006, when footy was first played with the creation of the short-lived St Esteve Saints.

The result was also a milestone for Montpellier, their 45-point win the club's first victory.

Footy has been reborn in the Spanish capital, with the Madrid Bears coming out of hibernation to take on the city's newly-formed second club, the Móstoles Kangaroos, at the Andrés Torrejón Sports club in Móstoles.

The match held on the 21st of February marked the first round of the Liga de Fútbol Australiano de la Comunidad de Madrid, with the two sides playing for the 'Wombat Cup'.

The opening encounter saw the Bears run out 94-54 victors, although locals report a definite improvement from the less experienced Kangaroos players over the course of the game. Among the Madrid Bears squad on the day were a number of players from the Spain Bulls side which attended the IC 2005 in Melbourne, a positive sign after the club disappeared from the radar of the international footy community over the past few years.

The next match planned between the Bears and Kangaroos has been scheduled for this coming Saturday, dubbed the 'Dingo Cup'. Also on the cards is a proposed 5-team national league, which would see the two Madrid area teams take on the Catalan clubs of Barcelona and Valls and the new club of the Catalan-speaking microstate Andorra in tournament play as the year progresses.

In the meantime, the Bears' new website at MadridBears.com is under construction and has some info up for Spanish-speaking readers.

The Australian Indigenous youth team, known as the Flying Boomerangs, have bounced back to decisively win the second and final game of their tour of Papua New Guinea. The match was played in Lae, around 300 km north of the capital (Port Moresby), being PNG's second biggest city at around 90,000.

It's thought that the PNG youth side that faced the Boomerangs in Lae was mostly drawn from around that area (Highlands and Momase, which mainly covers the northwest of the country), rather than being the players that defeated the visitors by a point in game one. This showed on the scoreboard, with the Aussie boys winning by 38 points.

Flying Boomerangs 7.10 (52)
PNG Kupundas (Highlands and Momase) 2.2 (14)

The first ever season of International Rules games in France is over. This year has seen five IR games being played on French soil.

The main event of the past few months was the inaugural Paris International Rules Cup (PIRC), where the Paris Cockerels (Australian football) competed against the Paris Gaels (GAA). The Cockerels lost 3 of the 4 matches to the Gaels, which proved to be too strong. But each of the games saw the Aussie Rules players gaining more confidence with the round ball and putting more pressure on the Gaels. This would ultimately lead to the Cockerels' first victory in the PIRC, beating the Gaels 6-2-12 (54) to 2-5-10 (43), under the IR scoring system of 6 points for a goal (under), 3 for an over and 1 for a behind.

But Paris is not the only place where IR is being played in France. The Bordeaux Bombers started their 2009 season with an IR game against the newly formed GAA team of Charente-Maritime. The more experienced Bombers outplayed their opponents and eventually won the game.

The chance of the Gold Coast Football Club being awarded a licence to compete in the AFL from 2011 took a big step forward during the week, with Queensland's Premier, Anna Bligh, committing her government to contribute $60million to an upgrade of Gold Coast Stadium (Carrara).

The global financial crisis has been seen as a major threat to the 17th licence bid, and reported plans for a $300million stadium were shelved. But the announcement from Queensland's Labor government is thought to have all but guaranteed the state will secure its second AFL club. It's believed the AFL will also contribute significantly to the stadium, and hopes to gain Federal government funding as well.

The only concern in that area is that a state election is imminent, and the National-Liberal opposition has not yet matched Bligh's promise - this has reportedly upset local candidates given that the business community is looking forward to the significant money an AFL club would bring to the area. A Queensland study on the economic impact of a Gold Coast-based AFL side found that when the club was up and running at full capacity it would generate more than 400 local jobs and economic activity of $34 million a year – 92 per cent of which would flow to non-AFL businesses.

The tip is that the licence will be awarded to the Gold Coast at the AFL Commission meeting later this month. That would be good news for PNG's Amua Pirika, who is playing with the club as they head into the TAC Cup Under 18 competition.