World Footy News

The USAFL are seeking to fill Revolution Team Coach and USAFL Accountant positions. All details below.

International footy returns to the US in 2009 when the national team, the Revolution host old foes the Canadian Northwind at Mason, Ohio. The weekend of footy will be a warmup run for the venue that will later in the year host the USAFL National Championships.

Although the Northwind will be wearing the white shorts they should go in as favourites given the August 2007 result and the fact that they finished higher placed than the US in the recent International Cup in Melbourne. Both countries will be interested whether Canadian young gun, Scott Fleming will be home for the clash or continuing his Down Under footy education.

Last December we reported on the formation of the Bordeaux Bombers - France's third club. Since then, 2008 has seen the creation of the Montpellier Fire Sharks on the Mediterranean coast and the rebirth of footy in northern Catalonia, with the creation of the Perpignan Tigers.

This month sees the French footballing fraternity welcome new clubs in the cities of Aix-en-Provence and Toulouse. The Aix Rascasses will be the first club in France's south-east, the name "Rascasse" translating as Scorpionfish in English - a venomous inhabitant of the waters around Marseille and the Côte d'Azur.

The Toulouse Crocodiles will bring footy to another of France's main centres. With Toulouse, Montpellier and Perpignan all within a few hours' drive of each other, and Bordeaux, Aix and the Catalan league not too much further in either direction, the future looks promising for an area that only 12 months ago had no clubs at all.

The Wellington AFL (WAFL) competition has just concluded with the Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs easily accounting for the North City Demons in the Grand Final. The Bulldogs have now lost just one game in the past two seasons, and that was midway through 2008 when the Demons trounced them during the home and away season. The Bulldogs used that to focus for the remainder of the season to go through and take their third Premiership in the past four years.

Much has happened in the South Island of NZ with Aussie Rules over the past few months. Funnily enough, Aussie Rules had just about dwindled away to nothing in Canterbury in the mid 90’s. Previous to that they had a competitive competition centered in Christchurch, but by the mid 90’s they were often down to playing 6-a-side games, with young kids involved, just to get a kick for the die-hards.

In late 1997, with an invitation to the WAFL from a keen Canterbury committee, I took a team down from Wellington to Picton, the beautiful ferry port at the top end of the South Island, and reignited the Wellington/Canterbury Provincial rivalry which had been dormant for about 8 seasons.

Things have changed greatly in just over a decade since.

The first ever International Rules game to take place in France was held in Paris on Monday 24th of November. It saw two Parisian teams, the Gaels of Gaelic football and the Cockerels of Australian football, fighting hard for the win on a cold winter night.

It has been an exciting year for both teams, the Cockerels won the inaugural French Cup in June, and the Gaels finished the European Cup as runners up.

The match saw the Gaels run out comfortable winners, with a final scoreline of 84-17, but set in motion plans for a regular Paris International Rules series to be held in the coming winter.

In Debate - World footy rankings 2008 - Peace Team, Great Britain and Catalonia we began the debate towards a set of World Rankings for 2008.

In today's article we ponder the status of Ireland's AFL players.

So what about the Irish players? Ireland finished fourth at the 2008 Australian Football International Cup, but they did not have access to their professional players on AFL lists. At this stage of the game's evolution it was not realistic to expect that they would be made available, and whether they should have is not the purpose of this debate. The question is whether they should be included when pondering a world ranking system. Should the rankings only reflect matches played, or should it consider the strongest nations in terms of the teams they theoretically could put on the field, given their professional players too?

Late in 2007 and early in 2008 AFL Britain was formed from the British Australian Rules Football League with the intention of splitting the duties of the committee such that the individual football leagues could operate somewhat independently within the broader framework of AFL Britain. This was to free up AFL Britain to concentrate on longer term strategic goals rather than day to day running of the London leagues, as well as to provide an umbrella structure over the very fractured footy landscape, particularly in England.

12 months on and the 2009 committee has been elected, with outgoing President Sam Percy stepping aside as he predicted a year ago, having overseen some of his goals but true unity remaining elusive. He now intends to focus on the running of the AFL London leagues, while committee-member Glen Ocsko has moved up to take on the role of President.

The AFL today confirmed the speculation in the past week that the Cape Town NAB Cup match between Collingwood and West Coast would be called off due to the global financial crisis, which has seen financial backers withdraw from the venture. Perhaps conveniently this news is swamped by the ongoing saga of one man, Ben Cousins who today was picked up in the Pre-Season Draft by the Richmond Football Club.

While the loss of this match is a massive blow to those in South Africa, in the past week there have been both media articles and posts on football forums by both Collingwood and West Coast supporters who see the match being played in Australia as a big bonus for them. On a positive note for football development in South Africa, it was confirmed that the AIS AFL Academy would tour South Africa for the third year in a row in 2009.

The following is the statement released by the AFL this afternoon:

That’s not the headline that Aussie rules fans want to see. Fortunately for them the AFL in this case it is the Arena Football League in the US, the little brother of the NFL. The league there has decided to suspend the season in light of the financial difficulties being faced across the US. As for the USAFL, teams such as Orange County, San Diego and Denver have been known to have games as curtain raisers (or half time entertainment) for Arena football matches with the aim to take Aussie rules to a new audience, so that is off the cards for 09. But it's also likely that we may see the effects of the financial crisis impact USAFL clubs as well. Struggling clubs may lose players that can no longer afford the often high travel costs to play the game that sees competing cities separated by large distances, and club sponsors will be harder to find or maintain as every dollar spent is closely scrutinized.

The AFL has announced Laws of the Game changes for season 2009. While the rules will immediately affect the AFL season (and NAB Cup competition), it is as always up to bodies around the world on whether they implement these changes or ignore them.

AFL Football Operations Manager Adrian Anderson, Chairman of the Laws of the Game Committee, said the Commission had approved the following at its monthly meeting in Melbourne today:

1) Four minor rule changes for the 2009 Toyota AFL Premiership Season;

2) Two new interpretations for the 2009 Toyota AFL Premiership Season;

3) One change to the AFL regulations for the 2009 Toyota AFL Premiership Season;

4) Introduction of three 2009 NAB Cup / NAB Challenge rules that may be introduced for the 2009 Toyota AFL Premiership Season;

5) A revision of the rules used in the 2008 NAB Cup, which has seen some rules retained and others discarded to bring the NAB Cup more in line with the Toyota AFL Premiership Season.

Melbourne's Herald Sun is reporting that the AFL's NAB Cup match in Cape Town is in doubt due to sponsors pulling out, citing the global financial crisis. AFL corporate affairs manager Brian Walsh said: "A few of our key stakeholders have reviewed their commitment to the game in the context of the world financial situation. We are now looking at that, and what the implications might be for the game".

International AFL matches such as this are largely funded by sponsorship money and rely on corporate packages. In the current economic conditions companies are spending less, and more importantly, want to be seen to be spending less (there have been some high profile cases of public shaming in the United States where company spending has been seen as excessive). The AFL has also advised all clubs to tighten their belts and trumpeted that they are doing the same, whilst also facing growing pleas for further money from clubs such as Melbourne.

In this context it would be quite understandable if the AFL was forced to cancel, and perhaps quite difficult for them to proceed without the sponsors, but it would be a real shame for the South African players and supporters. It has been a decade since the only official AFL match in South Africa (last year's Carlton versus Fremantle game was just an exhibition pre-season game), and taking away the much anticipated return of AFL would send the wrong signals after much recent effort to assure that international development is important.

The Herald Sun article reports that the AFL will likely make a decision in the next few days, and that "It is believed only a last-minute sponsorship arrangement being sought by the AFL can save the match from being transferred back to be played in Australia".

Although the move would not be the end of the world for the South African program it would send the wrong message - let's hope a white knight sponsor emerges, or the AFL Executive makes the tough but strategic call to keep their eye on the game's international growth. In times past the sport's administrators have recoiled and international development has died off - this would be a great opportunity to take a stand for the future. Australian football has given other sports a century head start - now may be the perfect time to make up some of that ground.