Australian Rules Football in Sweden - History

History

Australian rules football began in Sweden in late 1993 with the creation of the Helsingborg Saints for play in the Danish Australian Football League. They continued as the only Australian rules club in Sweden (excepting the short-lived Lund Bulldogs in 1995) until 2002, when the DAFL was restructured and the Saints were divided into three new clubs, the Port Malmö Maulers, Helsingborg West Raptors and Lund Magpies. After 2005, the three Scania teams became feeders for the South Sweden Saints (changed name back to Helsingborg Saints in 2008), who competed in the DAFL Premier League and reached the 2005 Grand Final.

In 2003 a new club was formed, the Göteborg Berserkers, followed by the Stockholm Dynamite in 2004. The three centres for footy in Sweden continued to operate largely independently of each other, with the Dynamite creating its own three team local league, the Stockholm region Australian Football Federation.

A loose federation calling itself the Swedish Australian Football Association was created, but no real governing body was created until late 2007. The announcement of the creation of the Swedish Australian Football League in 2006 comprises the Scania and Gothenburg clubs, the Stockholm teams remaining separate in the SAFF.

AFLSweden is the official governing body of Australian rules football in Sweden.

Read more about this topic:  Australian Rules Football In Sweden

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    ... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.
    Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)

    One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.
    Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)

    The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.
    Willa Cather (1876–1947)