The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) battle for Europe is now official.
IFAF New York released a statement on Friday, that Denmark will host a version of the European Junior Championship (EJC) in 2017. The statement was released on ifaf.org, the site for the world’s governing body for American football that is led by former Football Canada president Richard MacLean,
Also last week, IFAF Europe (Paris), under the auspices of the Tommy Wiking-led IFAF Paris, released news that France would host their European Junior Championships following qualification tournaments in Serbia and Holland.
The news of these two competing tournaments, which will take place over the same weekend in July, will surely shake up the pool of participating nations.
The IFAF Europe EJC organizers released a tourney lineup earlier this year and a schedule that included Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Serbia, Italy, Russia and Hungary. However, with the news of the Danish tourney we expect some changes. Allegedly, IFAF Europe (Paris) has not received final confirmation from all participants.
Now with Denmark accepting applications for a tournament in July, only three months or so away, countries such as Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Finland and Norway will no doubt be battling for their version of the EJC title. According to IFAF Paris, none of these five countries applied to play in the IFAF Europe tournament.
So many questions.
Which tourney will Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Serbia participate in? Will Serbia still host a qualification tournament? It’s clear that IFAF Paris nations Germany, France, Spain, and Netherlands with play in the French tourney. When the dust settles, where will all the nations fall?
Two years ago Austria won the European Junior Championship defeating Germany in the final. Denmark finished third ahead of France in fourth.
All these European decisions will have global repercussions.
Who will the winners of the European tournament play in the IFAF U-19 World Championship? That tournament is held every other year, and was recently held in Harbin, China last July and was won by Canada. In 2016, Austria participated in this tourney along with U.S.A., Mexico, Australia, China, Japan, and Canada. And, although they did qualify, Germany and France did not participate.
Who would then appear in an IFAF [New York] U-19 World Championship? With the top four countries in the world – U.S.A., Canada, Japan and Mexico – not to mention Australia, all siding with IFAF New York, would Austria, Germany, and France be allowed to participate? Would the same situations occur if with IFAF [Paris] U-19 WC and an IFAF New York EJC produced a winner from either Scandinavia or Great Britain. Will IFAF Paris and IFAF New York both hold U-19 World Championships?
The deadline for tourney applications have passed for the IFAF Europe tourney in France. Registration for the EJCs to be held in Denmark remain open until March 31.