2008 EU Cup preview - France, Croatia, Czech Republic and Catalonia

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2008 EU Cup preview - France, Croatia, Czech Republic and Catalonia

Authored by: Julian Clark
on Wednesday, October 08 2008 @ 12:58 am ACDT

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The CEAFL was formed based on the expectation that any European Championship would have to feature UK, Ireland, Denmark (as the Euro members of the now (and then) defunct Atlantic Alliance)... and they would have the loudest voices

The expectation of such a pan European body was that they would of course want to play fully native... so the CEAFL was defined as "Central" since that was where most of the new formative countries were... and also to keep control in that area.

The intention was never to EXCLUDE the big 3, but just not to CATER to them at the expense of what the CEAFL was trying to achieve...

sure we could shift the tournament by a week or 2 to allow a big country to attend, but if it was a choice between Austria and Ireland... Austria's wishes would be met.

as it turns out, none of the big teams have attended one yet - but they do remain welcome.

When I was asked to "withdraw" the CEAFL in favour of an EU Cup, my comments were that the CEAFL would return as soon as the EU Cup failed to deliver the type of tournament that formative countries needed (just one year later as it turned out). I was however, quite happy for the EU Cup to take the limelight in 2005, since I had returned to Australia and we were organisationally a little light on the ground on the continent at that time...

true to my predictions, the EU Cup is becoming what any tournament claiming to be THE event in Europe should be, and that is a fully native hitout (it is well on the way to achieving that with a limit of 6 Australians)... with the exception of being 9 a side - a format which, quite frankly - I don't like at all.

However - hopefully we will see Switzerland, Italy, Greece and several other debutants at the CEAFL in coming years whilst developing their way to EU Cup eligibility... that development helped along by the handicap system pioneered by the CEAFL in Dusseldorf 2004.
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2008 EU Cup preview - France, Croatia, Czech Republic and Catalonia

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Wednesday, October 08 2008 @ 05:11 am ACDT

A fully native 18-a-side European Champs is not far away. I'm hearing people
talk about 2010.

Going back to your previous point though Rooster - if you've got 7 Aussies in
Switzerland who want a game, I wouldn't worry about not being able to play
them at the EU Cup. You've got club sides in Stuttgart, Strasbourg, Munich
within a few hours' drive who might be up for a game.

2008 EU Cup preview - France, Croatia, Czech Republic and Catalonia

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Wednesday, October 08 2008 @ 09:33 am ACDT

Thanks for the background info Rooster. Interesting how things have kind of cycled around in international footy - a lot of things are either intentionally built on the back of past events or are the same concept re-born. It's all adding to the foundations, but it would be nice to see the day come when the structures settle down into a bit more continuity. At the moment there are so many ideas bubbling along it's difficult to know whether they'll merge into one big structure or whether they'll all remain too small to get critical mass.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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