The small town of Chichester, with a population of just over 20,000, is home to one of Britain's newest universities - the University of Chichester only being founded in 2005. The town is also home to one of Britain's newer university Australian football clubs, with the Chichester Cougars kicking off proceedings late last year.

Since being founded by members of the nearby Southampton Titans, the Cougars have played matches against Chippenham, Portsmouth and Birmingham Uni, recently breaking through for their first win.

Cougars founder Martyn Hinchey spoke to WFN about his club.

The Czech Australian Football League last year kicked off its first domestic season, with the Czech Lions squad divided into two teams dubbed the Marauders and the All-Stars.

In 2010 the CAFL has announced that Prague local league will expand to four teams, with the creation of the Prague Dragons and Prague Kings. The Marauders have been renamed the Prague Cats, and the side that played as the All-Stars in 2009 will run out as the Vinohrady Hawks.

CAFL president Mike Gouteff spoke to World Footy News about the development plans for footy in the Czech Republic.

The Croatian Association of Australian Football will shortly kick off its 2010 season, with local clubs Zagreb Hawks and Agram Power joined by new side the Velika Gorica Bombers.

Kolja Koracak from the CAAF says that after a draft is held in early March, the season will see each team play each other three times, with the team with the best record declared premiers. The inaugural Croatian Cup, a one-day 3-team tournament, will be held in autumn.

The Croatian national team has made some strong showings at European tournaments in the past few years, the high points being a runners-up at the 2008 EU Cup in Prague and hosting the 2009 EU Cup in the town of Samobor.

In 2010 the Knights will again be taking to the road, with both the 16-a-side European Championships in August and 9-a-side EU Cup in October booked into the calendar.

A new website has been launched at footycroatia.com where all news and info about Croatian footy will be found in future. A YouTube video from the Knights' preseason training is available here.

As befits a cultural and linguistic region that crosses numerous national borders, the Lliga de Futbol Australià de Catalunya (LFAC) became the first Tri-National footy league in the world last year, with clubs from the Spanish (southern) side, the French (northern) side and Andorra.

This year, the LFAC is planning to expand to five clubs, with the Cornellà Bocs, Belfry Valls, Andorra Crows and Perpignan Tigers to be joined by new club Cossetans Alt Camp.

The Catalans look set to continue as a stand-alone entity in European Aussie Rules, having been admitted as full members of the EAFA at the foundation meeting in Frankfurt in recognition of the fact that they had been operating as an independent organisation for a number of years and receive considerable support for their national representative team from the government of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia.

The LFAC's Pere Casan Bonet says the Catalans were disappointed to miss out on the EU Cup in 2009 and are already taking steps towards mounting a challenge for both the 16-a-side European Championships in August and the 9-a-side EU Cup in October.

After their debut season last year, mainly dedicated to the development of the Italia Azzurri national team, culminating with the participation at the EU Cup in Samobor (Croatia) in October 2009, the AFL Italia have worked hard during the off-season and have come up with the numbers to begin a 4-team national league in 2010.

Nicola Giampaolo and Armando Colombo made the official announcement on a meeting held in Busto Arsizio on Saturday February 13th, just before the National Training Camp in Milano.

The 4 teams are to be based in Milan, Rome, Genoa and Lugano, the last of those cities being located just over the border in the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland. The home and away season will see the teams play each of their opponents twice, followed by a final-four system with the two best-placed teams on the ladder having a double chance.

Grand Final day will be September 4th in Roma, and the Italian Aussie Rules community are sure that it will be a great event with a good turnout.

The Iceland Ravens made their debut appearance at last year's EU Cup in Croatia, impressing on debut with their almost all-local side pushing the Netherlands and Germany and having a solid win over Italy. Since then, the Icelanders have been training indoors over the northern winter and are planning for the IceAFL's first domestic season.

Icelandic Aussie Rules stalwart Friðgear "Fritz" Ásgeirsson was recently contacted by a group hoping he'd be able to help them also start the sport of rugby union in Iceland. Both sports are at a similar stage of development in the country, with the Aussie Rules club having about 25 regulars currently training and the rugby club getting around 20 players to its first training session last autumn.

Fritz has been appointed chairman of the new organisation, and says the partnership would see the groups share facilities such as grounds, as well as cross-promotion and a schedule that allows people to play both sports.

Although the details are still being negotiated regarding who will play in which league for the 2010 footy season, regional England has a number of new clubs warming up for their league debut.

WFN reported on the Wolverhampton Wolverines and Cambridge Hippos late last year, and while the Hippos look like they may still be short of players, the Wolverines are poised to be the West Midlands' third club.

Further east, the Peterborough Lightning are recruiting, as are the Oxford Beavers. In West Yorkshire, university club the Leeds Met Taipans are also set to take the field.

The Randers Dockers last year took the field in Denmark's Jutland 9s regional league, thereby becoming the first new club in the Danish Australian Football League in over a decade.

Founded by Jens Djernes, one of two members of the Denmark Vikings selected in the World All-Stars at the IC08, the Randers club have recently officialised a partnership arrangement between the Randers AFC and AFL club Fremantle, becoming one of a growing number of Dockers partner clubs worldwide.

The Dutch Australian Football Association is gearing up for their first full domestic season, having launched the local league on January 30th in Utrecht.

As we reported in DAFA to launch 4-team Dutch domestic league in 09, the Flying Hollanders have been working to kick-start a local competition since early last year. The country's first local club, the Utrecht Saints, played against the Rest of Holland in May 2009, marking the first domestic fixture in the Netherlands.

The Saints will be joined by the Eindhoven Eagles, the Amsterdam Devils and the Den Haag Ooievaars (Dutch for "the Storks").

The DAFA season kicks off in Utrecht on March 21st, with the first game for the national team a friendly against London's Putney Magpies on March 27th.

After a strong 2009 saw the Flying Dutchmen take out second place at the EU Cup, plenty of international footy fans will be taking notice of what could be a new force to emerge at the Euro Championship 2010 and International Cup 2011.

The AFL Sweden recently concluded a competition to decide on a new logo and jumper for the national team, the Swedish Elks.

The Elks have worn three different jumpers in test matches, or four including Helsingborg Saints jumpers worn for a match against Denmark back in the 90s. The old set of yellow jumpers with the blue vee and three crowns have gradually worn out, as have the all-yellow jumpers worn in a few matches. At the IC08 the Elks wore jumpers based on the Swedish flag, which it was decided were to be retained by the squad members after the tournament. So, it was decided that it was time for a new look for the coming seasons.

AFL Sweden president Jörg Pareigis says the league received widespread interest. "We had 13 entries from four professional and non-professional designers. Matt Bonser won the competition and we will work with him to fine tune the design before we order the new kit that we want to use for the EC2010 and the IC11."

Bonser's winning design that incorporates the Elk and Three Crowns with a traditionally-Aussie Rules "V". Some of the other designs can be seen at the AFL Sweden website.