The Perpignan Tigers are hosting the French National League's grand final tournament this Saturday May 14th, with all six teams from the regular season in attendance at the Stade Roger Ramis.

The French sides played in two pools this year, with Aix-Marseille, Perpignan and Toulouse in the southern division, and Paris, Strasbourg and Bordeaux in the north. Unlike most Australian rules football leagues in Europe, the French played their season over the northern winter, beginning late 2010.

The first match kicks off at 10.30am, with the Perpignan Tigers taking on the Strasbourg Kangaroos for 5th place. The Aix-Marseille Dockers clash with the Paris Cockerels for 3rd at 2pm, and in the main game, the Bordeaux Bombers and Toulouse Hawks will clash for the national premiership at 4pm.

The premiership cup will be presented by Damien Blanch, professional Rugby League player from the Perpignan-based super league club Dragons Catalans, with cheerleaders and the Dragons' official mascot also adding some colour to the event.

For more information, visit perpignantigers.com.

In partnership with AFL clubs Port Adelaide and Fremantle Dockers, AFL Femminile Italia is proud to present their first of a number of fundraising projects, aimed at helping the AFL Italia women’s team take part in the AFL International Cup, being held this year in Sydney and Melbourne in August.

The Fremantle Dockers have supported AFL Italia for the past 18 months through their partnership with AFL Italia club Genoa Dockers. Port Adelaide also have connections with the Italian community in Adelaide and last year included AFL Italia representatives in their Famiglia di Port dinner and fundraiser.

The AFL Round 9 clash between Port Adelaide and Fremantle Dockers is being tagged as the “Indigenous Round” and Port Adelaide and the Fremantle Dockers boast the highest number of indigenous players on their lists.

Both clubs see this as a great opportunity to promote Indigenous Art, but also as a way to show support for the growth and development of Australian Football internationally.

Poland's first Australian rules football club is under formation in the city of Poznań, dubbed the Polish Bisons.

Maciej Makarewicz says the team is hopeful of making their international debut at the 2011 Euro Cup in Belfast, and are also hoping to be able to schedule some friendly matches with the clubs in Berlin and Prague, both of which are within a few hours' drive. The team currently has 13 players, none of whom are Australians, although there is some playing experience through squad member Wlodek Przygorzewski, who took part in the European Crusaders side at the EU Cup a few years back.

Closer to home, the Bisons intend to encourage the creation of teams in other Polish cities and kick off a domestic competition.

The Bison is a popular symbol for Poland, with Białowieża Forest in the east of the country famous for having been the last wild home of the European Bison, also known as the Wisent, whose population had almost been hunted to extinction by the 1920s, but is now slowly recovering around Europe thanks to breeding from the wild Polish herds.

Whilst the new club is yet to create a web presence, anyone interested in contacting them can try their "Official" Fan Page.

This past weekend saw an extravaganza of footy in London, as the GB Bulldogs and Irish Warriors continued their preparation for the International Cup and the touring AIS Academy team of rising stars faced the youngsters of the European Legion, drawn from club sides across the continent. Held at the scenic Dulwich College, the occasion was blessed with good footy, bright sun and an enthusiastic crowd of supporters.

The match between the Academy and European Legion, although fairly predictable on the scoresheet - the academy coming off a victory against Geelong’s reserves! - provided a fantastic spectacle of play for the supporters, who really got behind the individual victories that each Legion player enjoyed against their direct opponents.

Tackles, bumps, dodges and the well-earned goals were all greeted with great cheers, and the youngsters forming the Legion team will have picked up new skills from their experience against players we’ll no doubt see on the screen in the not-too-distant-future. From a GB Bulldogs point of view, it was great to see the competition from squad hopefuls Adam Ballard, Danny Armitage, Josh Davey and Sam Brunton.

This report by Adam Bennett, President of AFL Britain. The full squad selected by the Great Britain Bulldogs for the 2011 International Cup is listed below.

Catalonia's oldest footy club, Belfry Valls, is coming to Madrid on May 7th for a three-way tournament versus the Spanish capital's Madrid Bears and Móstoles Kangaroos clubs.

The event will mark the first occasion that a Catalan team has come to Madrid for a challenge match, and the first time that the Madrileños and Catalans have met outside the EU Cup since the Madrid Bears visited Barcelona back in 2003.

The players from the Bears and Kangaroos came together once again to form the Spain Bulls last month for a friendly match against reigning AFL London premiers the Wandsworth Demons. Whilst the Bulls went down to the English power club by 17 points, visiting former Sydney Swans star Brett Kirk was impressed with their tenacity, even pulling on a Spanish jumper for the first half of the match, and writing about the experience here on his blog, Captain Kirk's odyssey.

Prior to this, Kirk had also stopped by Barcelona, taking part in a match with the Lliga de Futbol Australià de Catalunya.

As the European summer approaches, bringing the footy season with it, a few hardy locals and expat Aussies are building new clubs in Scandinavia, adding to the current footy communities of Sweden and Denmark.

South-eastern Sweden has a footy club for the first time, with the Karlskrona Magpies kicking off late last year. In Denmark, half-Danish Aussie Dan Petrolo is working hard to bring the sport to the city of Odense, with some practice matches against other Danish sides in the pipeline.

LEFT: Some of the founding members of the Karlskrona Magpies in late 2010.

We'll have full match reports of the weekend's matches in London on WFN within a few days, but in the meantime, the AFL's website have a review of the AIS vs European Legion available here.

The AIS-AFL Academy team was, as expected, a very well-drilled and skillful outfit, and far too strong for their young European opposition. However, the Europeans can take some encouragement that in future they might well be able to say that they've played against young men who went on to be stars of the AFL.

Lop-sided matches always stir up passionate debate in international footy, whether it's New Zealand beating India by over 200 points at the IC08, the Convicts pounding a novice Spanish side in Madrid, the French being outclassed by the expat Australians at the annual ANZAC match, or the difficulties faced by local-based regional English clubs in fielding a team to compete against Aussie expat-dominated London sides in the 1990s-era BARFL.

With the discussions about divisional play in the IC11 still ongiong, it's a topic that is sure to keep creating talk.

The newly reincarnated Birmingham Bears took the first crown in their history last Saturday, April 16, as they won the AFL Britain Central & North-West League Lightning Cup, held in Hull.

The league’s inaugural Lightning Cup, which marked exactly 3 weeks until regular season start, featured 6 of the 7 teams in the division with Huddersfield Rams, Manchester Mosquitoes, Nottingham Scorpions and Sheffield Thunder being joined by newcomers Birmingham Bears and Hull Mariners.

Thanks to Tim Smith from the Birmingham Bears for this report.

The Irish Warriors take on the British Bulldogs in the second and final clash in London on the 23rd April. The first match, played in Dublin, saw the Irish narrowly defeat the Bulldogs as they battled from 30 points in arrears in the first quarter to take the win by a thrilling 5 points. We are all looking forward to what should be another intense game between these two teams next weekend.

WFN had the opportunity to interview the President of the Australian Rules Football League of Ireland / Assistant Coach to Warriors, Ciaran O’Hara, and here’s what he had to say about the upcoming match;

What do you think ‘made’ your comeback in the first match?

I think the guys weren’t prepared for the intensity of the first quarter the last day and made some costly early mistakes. What really made the comeback was hard work, patience and unity of purpose, things that were probably missing in the first quarter.

The Australian Football League Germany have announced their 22-man German Black Eagles squad for the upcoming test against France in Paris on June 11th.

The match will be the first full-field hit out for the Germans since last year's European Championships in Denmark and Sweden. For the French, it will be just the second full-field match for their National Team, their first coming up this weekend in the now-traditional ANZAC match against the expat-Australian "Aussie Spirit" in Villers-Bretonneux. The match against the Black Eagles will be a key early test for the French, who are on track to make their International Cup debut in August 2011.

Players from all six AFLG clubs are represented, with the Munich Roos leading the way with 7 members selected, followed by the Berlin Crocodiles with 6. The Rheinland Lions have 3 members in the squad, Stuttgart and Frankfurt 2 apiece, and the final member from the Hamburg Dockers.

Coaching the side is Australian Troy Pedder from the Berlin Crocs. Full squad listed below.

In terms of worldfootynews.com's evolving World Rankings, Germany are currently ranked 13th in the world, and the current difference up and down means neither a win or a loss will be enough to put them into 12th ahead of Canada, or see them drop to 14th below Japan. France are currently unranked, not having played any 16/18-a-side tests, and this match will see them enter the provisional rankings.