World Footy News

A new footy force is starting to growl softly in the south of Sweden. The Eksjö Bulldogs have arrived and they intend to take the Swedish footy world by storm, just as their AFL namesakes, the Western Bulldogs, did this year. “We come out snarling, Bulldogs through and through.”

The town of Eksjö is located a little over 300 kilometres to the south-west of Stockholm, close to the southern city of Jönköping and a part of the Jönköping County. The town is also close enough to the Skane County clubs such as the Helsingborg Saints and Port Malmo Maulers to entertain fairly regular matches.

Gustav Svensson is the force behind the ‘Dogs, but already has plenty of friends prepared to work hard to develop this team and bring it to full fruition.

“The club started with me in June 2016. I´d been playing since 2012 in Norrtälje and then moved down to Eksjö. I was missing the sport and thought about starting something here, and so i did. It started with asking among friends who would be interested in try the sport, so at the first trainings we were about 14 people training - both boys and girls.”

“So I kept going and kept up the training sessions and now we have even got some new members who are with us and train. I [believe] there are very good possibilities to get a good team together and keep it going. The plans for the future are to get even bigger and try to recruit more players and have some events.”

“Just recently we met the team Port Malmö Maulers for an exhibition match, and it went really well. The Port Malmö team were very impressed by our performance. So the future looks bright I think. The way to get the sport interesting is to have events that makes your player feel like they are there [as a part of something special] and create something they will be proud of.”

We wish the Bulldogs well in their journey, but being Bulldogs they will be tough, resilient and determined. The Swedish football scene will be better for their arrival.