World Footy News

"I make no apologies that this list is of those who dominated in the VFL competition, and then the AFL, as I believe the Victorian competition always was a quasi-national competition. The game started in Victoria, and has been led from Victoria."

With that statement Melbourne-based journalist Mike Sheahan condemned many of the greatest footballers of all-time to distant memories and destroyed any chance the AFL-commissioned book "The Australian Game of Football" had of truly being an accurate reflection of the great Australian game.

The board of the Barassi International Youth Tournament, with the endorsement of the AFL has announced its intention to postpone the 2008 BYT which was to be played in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory this October.

The tournament in the past (formerly known as the Jim Stynes Cup) has seen teams from New Zealand, South Africa, Samoa, Denmark, USA and Nauru attend with other teams featuring local participants from smaller communities around Australia. Only two countries had confirmed their participation at the 2008 BYT. Others had expressed interest but were unable to commit the necessary funds.

While some junior development programs offshore are funded by the AFL, countries are required to themselves raise funds to send teams to tournaments in Australia. The organisation of the Barassi Tournament itself is made possible by private contributions and sponsorships.

With some countries expressing the desire to send U17 youth squads to the 2008 International Cup and with a growing list of nations participating in the senior tournament, it might make sense for the two tournaments to combine in future to make the most of travel packages by sending larger squads, perhaps even including a women's squad.

In the meantime, it seems that the BIAYT seeks to remain the primary youth tournament and is slated to go ahead in October 2009, however the board is initiating discussions with stakeholders concerning the future of the tournament.

While it is disappointing that this year's event is postponed, a potential 2009 tournament could help fill the international calendar between senior International Cups.

In today's article on preparations for the Australian Football International Cup (also often referred to as the AFL International Cup or de facto Aussie Rules World Cup) we start to look at support such as transport and apparel for the competing nations.

An interesting article in The Age profiles the work of AFL multicultural development officers over the past 2 years.

Relevant to international footy is the fact that the article mentions the South African push and Irish gaelic football converts in the AFL, but pushes the angle that the AFL's development focus is still largely domestic.

There are now several development officers working out of AFL clubs, mostly in Melbourne but also in multicultural hotspots of growing interstate areas like Perth and western Sydney. These AFL officers are working with young groups including new African and Asian arrivals to introduce them to our game and culture. It is an interesting note that many of the schools that these kids go to do not even have the sport in their curriculum.

With close to 130,000 arrivals each year, this is some positive growth of a market which is small by international standards. Introducing these people to the sport may help the code to grow slightly and give them other options to the sports their families grew up with back at home. The AFL hopes that as a spin-off, should these migrants become professional players, that it may help people overseas to better identify with our game.

The article "AFL seeks converts in its own backyard" can be read here.

The French footy season kicks off in earnest on March 15th with a clash between the French national team and a German selection in Strasbourg. The game will mark the first appearance of players from the new Bourdeaux Bombers, who will join their counterparts from the Strasbourg Kangaroos and Paris Cockerels for the encounter. Kick-off is at 5pm, with free entry for spectators at the Hautepierre Sports Centre.

The Bourdelais will then back this up with their first home match, hosting Barcelona in early April, while Strasbourg have a match scheduled against the Flying Dutchmen in the coming months.

The weekend of July 5th has also been earmarked for the French national club championship, with Paris, Strasbourg and Bourdeaux possibly to be joined by a new club from Montpellier. The new club would be the second to have existed in their area of France, not far from Perpignan where the short-lived St Esteve Saints existed a few years ago.

More information at the internet home of French footy, FootballAustralien.com.

As we've mentioned previously, the Australian Football League is developing its news page for the 2008 Australian Football International Cup. They've now registered a new domain that will redirect to that page. Hopefully users will find it a convenient shortcut. The page also has photos and video from the 2005 event (the captains are pictured at left), and we're told that "the site will be updated with lots of stories about the history of the Cup as well as up-to-date news on all the competing countries".

ic08.com.au

Let's hope that as the Cup draws nearer (just six months to go) the AFL can find space for the Cup logo on the front page, directing general readers to the tournament.

The Ontario AFL (check out their new website) has appointed Emile Studham as its Director of Marketing and Game Development, their second full time employee. Emile has a long history of success with Australian Football in Canada, including a track record in junior development that the League is keen to revive.

Emile Studham has been associated with the Ontario AFL and the Northwind program since he first played for the Toronto Dingoes in 2001. During that year, he won the League Best & Fairest award, returning to Australia in the middle of the season due to player commitments in his home town of Wonthaggi. But it turned out that his association with footy in Canada had only just begun.

AFL legend Ron Barassi has made several comments about where he thinks the game should go. Besides his well-known desire to see the international side of the game expanded, he also reiterated his belief that North Melbourne should have moved to the Gold Coast, Melbourne has too many teams, Sydney should have more AFL clubs (but not yet) and that there are too many players on the field.

The Peres Center for Peace football team continues to attract media attention, with the latest article in the The Jerusalem Post.

This unique concept sees a group of Israelis and Palestinians, previously unfamiliar with Australian football, come together to learn the rules and then compete at this years International Cup. For several members of the team, it is their first real interaction with a Palestinian or Israeli and the article is an interesting read. It also raises the possibility of an Australian football competition in Israel once the International Cup is over.

Follow the story so far:
Israeli-Palestinian "Peres Peace Team" for IC 2008?
Israel-Palestine "Peres Peace Team" one step closer to IC 08
Peres Peace team under way
Teamwork goes for goal: peace
DiPierdomenico to coach Israel-Palestine Peace Team at IC

As the 2008 Australian Football International Cup quickly approaches, WFN is continuing to upload short segments of footage from the second Cup, back in 2005. The latest clips include Britain versus Papua New Guinea at what was Optus Oval (Carlton's ground), the welcome to teams in Wangaratta in rural Victoria, and the matches there between Ireland and Japan (mainly Japan's solemn anthem), Britain and Canada (focussed on former AFL player Matt Connell's 3/4 time coaches address to the Bulldogs, and post match celebrations) and the tight United States versus PNG one point result.

View the footage on the World Footy Channel.

There’s been a fair bit in the Irish and Australian media over the past week about the possible resumption of the International Rules Series. The basis for such a resumption rests on a significant beefing up of disciplinary rules and some rather minor tweaks to playing rules, as evident in a document presented on the Melbourne Herald Sun website. The document arose out of GAA and AFL dialogue culminating in the recent meeting in Dubai before the Adelaide v Collingwood NAB Cup match.

A closely related factor making news is the increased “poaching” of Ireland’s best young Gaelic footballers by AFL clubs. The point is being made by GAA officials, including CEO Nicky Brennan who in the past has been somewhat negative towards the hybrid code, that working with the AFL will reduce rather than increase the loss of the GAA’s talent to Australia. As Fox Sports reports in Irish plunder plan rejected the AFL has recognised this and spoken against an all-out recruiting service for AFL clubs based in Ireland. On the other hand the creation of the two new AFL teams in Queensland and New South Wales has Setanta Sports reporting comments of AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou’s mentioning recruitment from Ireland as one possible source for players for the two new AFL teams.

On Friday February 8th USFooty held its first ever press conference to announce the 2008 USFooty National Tournament in Colorado Springs, CO. USFooty bills the tournament as the largest Australian Football Carnival in the world. While an early to mid October date is expected, USFooty is waiting on Air Force and the Mountain West Conference to announce the 2008 football schedule. The tournament will be played on the lush grounds of the Academy's vast Cadet Athletic Fields.

USFooty's announcement was reported in the local press and on the AP wire, as follows.