The Dansk Australsk Fodbold Liga (Eng: Danish Australian Football League) is the controlling body and main league for the sport of Australian rules football in Denmark. Founded in 1989, regular competition commenced in 1991. Despite being predominantly Danish, the league includes clubs in Scania (Swedish: Skåne, southernmost region of Sweden).
DAFL is often considered the largest and most successful Australian Rules football competition outside the English speaking world with hundreds of participants playing on tailor-made ovals each weekend across the country. In 2013 Aksel Bang, a product of the DAFL, accepted an international scholarship from AFL club Greater Western Sydney giants.
In 1989 Mick Sitch (cousin of Rob Sitch [1] ) placed an advertisement in a Danish newspaper asking if there were any interested parties who would like to meet him for a kick-to-kick in Fælledparken, a public park in Copenhagen. In addition to Mick, two other people turned up, a Dane, Robbie Larsen, and Steve McCay were present at the first informal training session, which formed the basis of a future league. In 1990 regular training sessions were held, with numbers swelling to the point where the players split themselves into three groups with the intention of starting a competition the following year.
The foundation clubs of the league were the Amager Tigers, Copenhagen Crocodiles and North Copenhagen Barracudas. Official league play began on June 8, 1991 with North Copenhagen taking on Copenhagen. In 1993, the next team to join the league were the Aalborg Kangaroos, based in northern Jutland and around six hours' travel from Copenhagen, followed in 1994 by the Helsingborg Saints in southern Sweden.
1995 saw two new expansion sides, the Farum Lions forming in the Copenhagen suburbs and a group leaving the Helsingborg Saints to found Sweden's second team, the Lund Bulldogs. Lund folded during the 1995 season, the number of clubs remaining at six until the Århus Bombers join the league in 1997 as the second side in Jutland.
With no new teams since 1997 and player numbers decreasing for the first time, the DAFL restructured its competition in 2003. The concept was based on more games between more (and smaller) teams - with three conferences making up the league. These were to be the Jutland Conference and the Zealand Conference in Denmark and the Scania Conference in Sweden. Clubs would be split into smaller squads and representative sides from the three conferences would play a regional series. The champion sides of each conference would then play a Denmark/Scania wide finals series to determine DAFL premiers.
This format was then reinvented a second time in 2005. Instead of adding a new level above the regular league play, as had been the case in 2003, the new league replaced the regional series with the club-based DAFL Premier League. The Premier League teams in 2007 are the North Copenhagen Barracudas, Farum Cats, Copenhagen Crocodiles, Jutland Shinboners, Port Malmö Maulers and the South Sweden Saints. Sides in the Premier League draw their players from four local leagues, based on North Zealand, Copenhagen, Jutland and Scania.
In 2011, prior to the 2012 season, the DAFL constitution was rewritten, changing the way DAFL is run. DAFL now has a board and they put down a league committee to run the actual league. This is to free up time for the board to focus on spreading knowledge of Australian Rules Football. The committee has a member from each club in the league, while the board has four members; a president, a vice president, a cashier and an Elite Committee President, who as the title suggests is the president of the DAFL Elite Committee, who is responsible for the Danish national team as well as tryouts for European teams.
The current (2015) president is Simon Malone. The vice president is Gavin Ward, the treasurer is Laszlo Peter Horvath and the Elite and Development Committee President is Morten Merhøj. In 2016 Maria Falkesgaard Jørgensen will replace Gavin Ward as vice president and Frederik Bøgeskov Schmidt will replace Laszlo Peter Horwath as treasurer
The teams that competed in the 2015 DAFL Premier League were Aalborg Kangaroos, Port Malmö Mailers, Copenhagen Barracudas, Copenhagen Giants, Odense Lions and reigning premiers Farum Cats. This brings the total number of teams to 6, 1 less than 2014 with the withdrawal of Helsingborg Saints. Copenhagen Giants won their first flag, coming into the finals placed fourth (due to better percentage than Port Malmö Maulers) and beating Aalborg Kangaroos in the Grand Final.
The sole competing team from Jutland are the Aalborg Kangaroos, playing in green and gold. The Aalborg Kangaroos were formed in 1993, the first DAFL club outside Copenhagen and lasted until 2003, when with the DAFL league restructure, the Aalborg club created two squads, the Kangaroos and the Power for the newly formed Jutland Conference. From 2005 they were a feeder club for the Jutland Shinboners until 2013, when they reentered DAFL Premier League as their own unit, changing outfits from the classic blue and white Kangaroos guernseys to the current custom made green and gold.
The other existing DAFL membership club in Jutland is the Randers Dockers. Randers competed as their own team in the 2013 DAFL Premier League, but had to withdraw late for the 2014 season. Randers is still a membership club of DAFL, but are not competing in the 2015 Premier League. Randers historically played in white guernseys with a purple anchor from Fremantle Dockers.
The sole team from Funen is the Odense Lions. Formed in 2012 by former Farum Cats player Morten Merhøj and Australian Daniel Petrolo, Odense competed in DAFL Premier League for the first time in 2014, after some of their players were registered to play for Randers the year before. Odense plays custom made in red/burgundy, blue and gold.
There are currently three teams from Zealand in the DAFL Premier League, the Farum Cats, the Copenhagen Barracudas and the Copenhagen Giants.
The club in Farum, originally dubbed the Lions, formed in late 1994, joining the DAFL for the 1995 season. They reached the grand final in every one of their first four seasons, although they only won the premiership in 1996. Farum have had an active junior department program since 1998, with half of the current senior players originally coming to the club as juniors. A partnership arrangement with the Geelong Football Club of the Australian Football League saw the club change its name and playing strip to match that of the Geelong club, and send senior and regular junior sides on tours of Australia. Farum is the most successful club in DAFL history, winning the Premier League a total of 8 times; in 1996, then three years running in 2005-2007 and every year since 2011. The current streak (4 years) is also a DAFL record. Farum plays in custom made navy blue and white guernseys with the old club shield on the stomach and the newer on the chest. It also shows the old DAFL logo on the chest. Since 2013, Farum Cats have been one of two teams under Farum Cats Australsk Fodboldklub (the other being FC Demons). In 2015, the Farum Cats Australsk Fodboldklub changed name to Farum Australsk Fodbold to accommodate also having a second team (being renamed Copenhagen Giants for the 2015 season). Since 2013, Troels Ottesen has coached and Thore Lauritzen has captained the team.
The Copenhagen Giants (formerly FC Demons) is a team under Farum Australsk Fodbold, based largely in Copenhagen but with home ground in Farum. The team was formed for the 2013 (when DAFL switched from 16 aside to 12 aside) season as a team for the Farum Cats players that had moved to Copenhagen. They were named FC Demons for the first two seasons, and achieved mixed success. In the first season they reached the finals after finishing in second place, but lost both their final games to Port Malmö and Farum. In their second season they were hit by injuries and lack of numbers, and forfeited half their games - making it an abysmal season. At the end of the season, there were talks about folding the team, but the team got rejuvenated energy and a few new players and decided to continue. During the winter a deal was made with Greater Western Sydney Giants which saw the team change name to Copenhagen Giants and as return they received a set of guernseys from them. The team now plays in GWS Giants clash guernseys (white with a dark grey G and orange borders). Since the beginning in 2013, the team has been coached by Morten Engsbye and captained by Simon Malone.
The Copenhagen Barracudas is the sole team fielded in the Premier League by Copenhagen Australian Football - the club founded from the three founding Copenhagen clubs. Copenhagen Australian Football was founded in 2014, effectively joining North Copenhagen Barracudas with the Copenhagen X-Men - who had players from Amager Tigers and Copenhagen Crocs. The Barracudas play in custom made guernseys based on the colours of Adelaide Crows with their insignia on the front.
The North Copenhagen Barracudas were a foundation club of the DAFL, playing in every season since the league started in 1991. After the 2003 league restructure, the club fielded two senior sides, the Barras and the Cudas. After the 2005 restructure, the club fielded the Barracudas team in the DAFL Premier League and two squads in the Copenhagen local league until 2014.
The Copenhagen Crocs were also a foundation club of the Danish Australian Football League and have played (in some form) in every season of the DAFL since it began in 1991. With the league restructure in 2005, the Crocs fielded a combined side with the Amager Tigers in the DAFL Premier League, dubbed the Copenhagen Hawks. The Crocs traditionally wore the colours of the Carlton Blues from the AFL. The Crocodiles returned to the Premier League in 2006. The Copenhagen Crocs are now part of Copenhagen Australian Football
The Amager Tigers, based in Amager in the southern Copenhagen urban area, were formed as the third foundation club of the DAFL, competing in every season (in some form) from 1991 to 2005. The Tigers had the most successful premiership record of any club in the DAFL, however they often struggled for year-to-year consistency, with premiership years followed by a finish near the bottom of the ladder. After the 2005 DAFL restructure, Amager fielded a combined side with the Copenhagen Crocodiles for play in the DAFL Premier League, to be named the Copenhagen Hawks. In early 2006 they announced that they would not field any teams that season, but may do so again in future. As of 2014 they are now a part of Copenhagen Australian Football.
East Coast Bulldogs was a newer team in the DAFL based in Greve, who never entered the Premier League, but played in DAFL Sjælland 9's. The club was founded by formed Farum player Gavin Hollingworth but was folded due to lack of time and playerbase.
Due to its proximity to Denmark, the region of Scania in southern Sweden has fielded teams in DAFL Premier League for many years. Over the years they've had Port Malmö, Helsingborg, Southern Sweden and Lund. Currently only the Port Malmö Maulers compete in Premier League after Helsingborg Saints withdrew for the 2015 season to focus on AFL Sweden. Helsingborg have however confirmed that they will return to DAFL for the 2016 season.
Denmark's national representative team are known as the Vikings. They have played a number of international fixtures dating back to the 1990s.
They competed in the Australian Football International Cup in Melbourne, finishing a respectable fourth behind Ireland, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. The Vikings withdrew from the 2005 International Cup due to lack of funds, although they returned to the 2008 International Cup.
In 2014 and 2015 the Vikings have won back to back AFL Europe Euro Cup victories, after finishing as runners up in 2012.
* Best on ground in Grand Final
Zealand at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper. Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020.
Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of domestic trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Association, Malmö FF is based at Eleda Stadion in Malmö, Scania. The club has won a record 23 Swedish championship titles and the most national cup titles with 15.
The Count's Feud, also called the Count's War, was a war of succession that raged in Denmark in 1534–36 and brought about the Reformation in Denmark. In the international context, it was part of the European wars of religion. The Count's Feud takes its name from the Protestant Count Christopher of Oldenburg, who supported the Catholic King Christian II, deposed in 1523, over the election of Christian III, a staunch Protestant who had already implemented Lutheranism as the state religion in Schleswig and Holstein in 1528.
Jesper Ringsborg Christiansen is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Nils Lennart Roland Nilsson is a Swedish professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the head coach of Allsvenskan club IFK Göteborg. As a player, Nilsson played 116 games for Sweden, making him the sixth most capped player in the Swedish national team. He also won the UEFA Cup and played in the semi-finals of the World Cup, the European Championships, and the European Cup during a playing career lasting over two decades. He won his first major honour as a manager in 2010 with Malmö FF when the team won Allsvenskan. On 1 April 2011 Copenhagen confirmed Nilsson as the club's new manager to replace Ståle Solbakken who left Copenhagen to become manager of 1. FC Köln in the summer of 2011. Nilsson joined Copenhagen on 1 June 2011 but was sacked after six months on 9 January 2012.
The Vikings are Denmark's national Australian rules football team. The team formed in 1992 to play the North London Lions from the British Australian Rules Football League in Denmark.
Australian rules football has been played in Sweden since 1993, with the game currently played in Helsingborg, Malmö, Lund, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Karlstad, Falun, Norrtälje and Uppsala. A national governing body was formed in 2007 under the name Svenska Australisk Fotbollsförbundet or AFL Sweden.
The Reading Kangaroos is an Australian rules football club which plays in the English town of Reading. Formed by Australians living in the area, the club quickly grew with strong local interest, now attracting players from all over Berkshire. The club is sponsored by The Reading Walkabout.
Farum Australsk Fodbold is a club under the Danish Australian Football League. Formed in 1994 as the Farum Lions, the team played their first season of DAFL Premier League 1995 finishing 2nd, after losing the grand final. The next year, the team, called Farum Lions at the time, won the DAFL Premier League. The team has won a total of 8 premierships, aside from 1996, they've also won 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. They are the only team to win four premierships in a row. The team changed names from the Farum Lions to the Farum Cats after an agreement with AFL club Geelong Cats. In 2015, the club changed name from Farum Cats Australsk Fodboldklub to Farum Australsk Fodbold to be more modern and to indicate that the club now runs two different teams.
Australian rules football is played in Europe at an amateur level in a large number of countries. The oldest and largest leagues are those in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, in each of these nations there are several established clubs, and organised men's, women's and juniors programs. The British AFL has now expanded into Welsh, Scottish and English leagues. The Danish AFL has been responsible for the expansion of Australian Football into Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Norway. 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 22 member nations. AFL Europe, with backing of the AFL in Australia has overseen a large improvement in the organisation of Australian football in Europe.
AaB, internationally referred to as Aalborg BK, or sometimes also known as AaB Aalborg, is a professional football team located in Aalborg. The club is represented in the NordicBet Liga from 2023–24 after relegation from Danish Superliga in 2022–23 and has won four Danish football Championships and three Danish Cup trophies. Most recently the team won the double in 2014.
The fixture between Helsingborgs IF and Malmö FF is a local derby in Scania, Sweden and a fierce rivalry. The derby does not have a common name, any derby in Scania is usually called a "Skånederby", the fixture is sometimes referred to as Slaget om Skåne. The rivalry has arisen because the two clubs are the most historically successful clubs in Scania and also come from the two most populous cities in Scania. The two clubs have also played most seasons in the top tier league Allsvenskan of all Scanian clubs and they are also the only Scanian clubs to have won the Swedish football championship, Malmö FF with 22 titles and Helsingborgs IF with 5 titles. In the early days of Swedish club football before the time of national league play the two clubs often faced each other in the final of the regional championship "Distriktmästerskapet". The clubs have also faced each other in Svenska Cupen and Supercupen. The majority of all matches between the two clubs have taken place in Allsvenskan. The rivalry temporarily died out between 1968 and 1993 when they weren't playing in the same league, Helsingborgs IF had been relegated from Allsvenskan and spent 23 season in lower leagues while Malmö FF played in Allsvenskan. In 2020, Helsingborgs IF were relegated from the top tier once again; Malmö FF had a one year stint in Superettan in 2000.
A Scanian derby is the name given to any fixture between football clubs in Scania, the southernmost county and traditional province of Sweden. The most high-profile fixture in the region is the rivalry between Helsingborgs IF and Malmö FF. Historically, the rivalry between the two clubs and Landskrona BoIS is also well known. Additional Scanian football clubs that are playing in the upper three tiers of Swedish football are BK Olympic, IFK Malmö, Trelleborgs FF, Lunds BK, Torns IF and Ängelholms FF. Two cities have more than one club in the top three tiers: Malmö with MFF, BK Olympic and IFK Malmö, and Lund with Lunds BK and Torns IF.
The 2016 season was Malmö FF's 105th in existence, their 81st season in Allsvenskan and their 16th consecutive season in the league. They competed in Allsvenskan where they finished first, the 2015–16 Svenska Cupen where they finished as runners-up, and the 2016–17 Svenska Cupen where they were knocked out in round two. The season began with the group stage of Svenska Cupen on 20 February, league play started on 2 April and the season concluded with the last league match on 6 November.
Peter Beier Chokolade, usually referred to as Peter Beier, is a Danish premium chocolate manufacturing and retailing company founded by Linda and Peter Beier in 1996. It is based at the Ørsholt estate outside Helsingør.
The 1926–27 KBUs Mesterskabsrække was the 39th season of the Copenhagen Football Championship since its establishment in 1889, and the 25th under the administration of Kjøbenhavns Boldspil-Union (KBU). The season was launched with two league matches on 29 August 1926 and the final round of regular league fixtures were played on 8 May 1927 with two matches. Boldklubben 1903 were the defending league champions from the 1925–26 KBUs season. The winner of the league would automatically qualify for the national championship final of the 1926–27 Landsfodboldturneringen played at the end of the regular season. All six teams in the league, including the winner of the 1926–27 KBUs A-række, also participated in the inaugural season of the new Danish Championship play-off structure, the 1927–28 Danmarksmesterskabsturneringen i Fodbold. The same six teams including both the winners and runners-up of the second-tier league, 1926–27 KBUs A-række automatically qualified for the 1927 edition of KBUs Pokalturnering.
The 1926–27 JBUs Mesterskabsrække was the 29th season of the Jutland Football Championship since its establishment in 1902, and the 5th season since the regional top-flight league was rebranded and reorganised from JBUs A-Række to the JBUs Mesterskabsrække. The season was launched on 12 September 1926 and concluded on 8 May 1927 with the final match of the regular league fixtures, while the two-legged championship play-off and the promotion/relegation play-off matches were held between 15 May and 12 June 1927. Horsens FS secured their second consecutive Jutland league championship and qualified for both the provincial semi-finals of the 1926–27 Landsfodboldturneringen and the group stage of the 1927–28 Danmarksmesterskabsturneringen. Horsens FS' reserve team were relegated and replaced by Kolding BK of the 1926–27 JBUs A-række, who had won the regional second-tier league championship. In the 1926 JBUs Pokalturnering, Aalborg BK obtained their third consecutive cup championship, by winning the final against Esbjerg fB.
Casper Ludvig Widell is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Eredivisie club Excelsior and the Sweden under-21 national team.
The 2021–22 Danish Women's 2nd Division was the first season of the new Danish nation-wide third-tier association football division since its establishment in November 2020 as part of the revised Danmarksturneringen i kvindefodbold's nation-wide league structure. Governed by the Danish FA, the season was launched on 14 August 2021 with two fixtures in the preliminary round and concluded with the last five matches on 13 November 2021. Østerbro IF, Solrød FC, Ballerup-Skovlunde Fodbold, Fredensborg BK&IF, FC Damsø, JAI Fodbold, IF Lyseng, Aarhus 1900, IK Aalborg Freja and Fortuna Hjørring (II) entered as relegated teams from last season's second division, while Allerød FK, BK Fremad Amager, KoldingQ and Vejle BK entered as promoted teams from the last season's third-tier. The eleven first teams, excluding the reserve teams, in the division entered the 2021–22 Danish Women's Cup in the cup tournament's first round proper. The fixtures for the 2021–22 season were announced by the Danish FA's tournament committee and featured a twenty weeks long winter break.