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[ollysj]

Some of you have stated in the London thread, that we Europeans should do our own leagues, so I will get you some information about football leagues over here.

During the late 70’s and 80’s several national football leagues, like the British American Football League or the German Football League were founded at Europe. Since then, football progressed huge here. Under the helm of the European Federation of American Football and the International Federation of American Football, several international championships, like the Eurobowl, European Championship or Euro Cup, were invented. The latest big event was the Junior World Championship at Canton, Ohio.

Contrary to the NFL, our leagues are non-profit leagues and the players didn’t get a large paycheck. Basicly, all they receive is more a compensation, than a salary. Nonetheless, US players and coaches are recruited and doing their jobs here.

The biggest boost for football, was the NFLE that brought this sport a higher attention than ever before. Unfortunately the NFL run this league very awful and Goodell finally pulled the plug.

Even if football will never be as popluar as soccer, hockey or basketball (who all run pro-leagues here) the interest grows…..


I hope that gave you a little insight and maybe the Britsh members have something to add too.

[Matt314hew]

ollysj,

I am glad you posted this. I didn't know they had smaller leagues over there. I did know about the NFLE league and knew that it was shut down. I still think that the NFL should try to run a league over there better than they did before. And if the interest keeps growing, then there could be an NFL league there that would be able to be sustained for a longer time than the NFLE.

[andy82]

The BAFL is still going, and the 23rd Championship Weekend (Britbowl) just past a few weeks ago. I'm not quite sure about the Premier Division (I think the Coventry Jets & London Blitz may be semi-pro, but not sure) but it's all amateur level. The amount of people playing the sport is growing by the minute but obviously it's restricted by the amount of travel and money that's needed to run the team.

At the moment, there are 50 BAFL teams split amongst three leagues, as well as a collegiate system with 58 teams split into eight leagues (With a 16 team playoff to determine National Champs).

[falcon_91]

essentially the NCAA could learn from our set up haha

The amount of people playing is growing but also things like the cost of just being able to play puts of some people for instance you would have to buy your own gear which could cost around £4-500 ($700) unless you go second hand, then on gamedays you still need to chip in for things like ambulances etc.

[ollysj]

That's alot of money. Teams here looking for sponsors to pay for the equipment, but I guess you have to pay a lot of stuff by yourself (especially in the lower leagues). I don't know about the ambulance, but I assume the local red cross organisations doing it for free ot the clubs/AFVD pay for it.

[falcon_91]

When i went along to practices - before i was old enough to play for the seniors - i remember people saying they had to pay for the time not alot something like 5-10 a game..People do look for sponsership but i think that mainly covers the cost of keeping hold o f the fields and clubhouses etc.

Individuals also look for sponsers to help with their own equipment but to be honest how many people are going to spend money on sponsering a minority sport when it could be used on the local 'soccer' or rugby team

[ollysj]

Sad but true. Sponsorship works only for the higher leagues. The smaler teams depend on gate-money, monthly fees of the members and home made cakes and coffee they sell during the games.

Anyway, slowly German players going accross the pond and start to have success. The best example is Sebastian Vollmer of the Pats. A few other players have made NCAA teams like Markus Kuhn (NC State), Matt Berning (Central Michigan) and Tobias Lembke (Minnesota-Duluth).

Are there Britsh players in the NCAA too?

[falcon_91]

There are one or 2, but mainly guys that went over around the time they would have begun high school

Tom Wort was a 4* LB last year who committed to Oklahoma - unfortunatly he tore his ACL and is out for the season
Jack Crawford is a starting DE for Penn State(sophomore) who has picked up a couple of stats

Thats the only 2 i can think of