Australian Rules Football In Europe
Australian rules football is played in Europe at an amateur level in a number of countries. The oldest and largest leagues are those in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, each nation having a number of clubs and organised junior programs. The governing body for Australian Football in Europe was founded in Frankfurt in January 2010; the body was initially called the European Australian Football Association, but changed its name to AFL Europe at a general assembly meeting in Milan in October of the same year. It currently has 19 member nations.
The sport has grown from a few clubs and leagues started by expatriate Australians in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to now having established leagues in over 15 nations, with the majority of players being non-Australian.
Ireland, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, France and Finland have thus far sent national teams to the Australian Football International Cup.
The two main cup competitions played between nations in Europe are the 16-a-side European Championships in Australian Football, which are played under rules requiring teams to be composed entirely of locals, and the nine-a-side Euro Cup (formerly known as the EU Cup), where expat Australians can be included in the squads under a handicap system.
Cup competitions held in the past have included the Atlantic Alliance Cup and Central European Australian Football League Championships. In addition, there are tests matches played between Great Britain and Ireland, a tri-series (European Australian Football Tri-nations Tournament) between Germany, Denmark and Sweden, and a tri-series between Croatia, Austria and the Czech Republic.
Read more about Australian Rules Football In Europe: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, European Performance At International Cup
Famous quotes containing the words australian, rules, football and/or europe:
“The Australian mind, I can state with authority, is easily boggled.”
—Charles Osborne (b. 1927)
“However diligent she may be, however dedicated, no mother can escape the larger influences of culture, biology, fate . . . until we can actually live in a society where mothers and children genuinely matter, ours is an essentially powerless responsibility. Mothers carry out most of the work orders, but most of the rules governing our lives are shaped by outside influences.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“New York has her wilderness within her own borders; and though the sailors of Europe are familiar with the soundings of her Hudson, and Fulton long since invented the steamboat on its waters, an Indian is still necessary to guide her scientific men to its headwaters in the Adirondack country.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)