EFAF European Championships 2014 in Austria.

Courtesy of Europlayers.

The EFAF European Championships 2014 will be held in Austria. EFAF has assigned the organization of the elite six-team tournament to the Austrian federation AFBÖ. The tournament will be held from May 30 until June 7, when it will conclude with the final game at Ernst Happel Stadium at Vienna. The game for third place will also be played in Austria's biggest and state-of-the-art arena. Preliminary group matches are scheduled in St. Pölten and Graz. The matches in the preliminary group of reigning European champion Germany and the fourth and fifth-placed teams of the last A-pool tournament from Sweden and Finland will be played in St. Pölten. France, runner-up in 2010, and the European Championships bronze medalist of 2010 and 2014 host Austria and the winner of the upcoming B-pool tournament in Italy for group play will join in Graz.

Sussex Thunder vs South Wales Warriors Highlights

Four more to join BAFANL

The British American Football community got a little bit bigger this weekend with the announcement that four more teams will potentially be joining the National League for the 2014 season. 

Teams from Aberdeen, Leeds, Sandwell and Torbay satisfied the league's initial assessment to become associate teams, meaning that they are likely to become full members of the league next season.

As with most decisions made by BAFANL, the news has split opinions across Britball, particularly with many teams struggling to keep their heads above water. Aberdeen and Torbay have a unique market to target - both play over 60 miles from the nearest team - but Leeds and Sandwell are situated in already saturated markets (Yorkshire and the West Midlands), so it will be very interesting to see how they will conjure up new players and if they end up poaching players from other teams.

The debate that will follow the entry of these teams will likely be a microcosm of the grander issues around the sport's development in the UK. Adding more teams without getting more coaches qualified to BAFCA Level Two (Lead Coach) level is likely to mean that player education suffers, and will only serve to dilute an already disparate talent pool.

We really do wish the four new teams the best of luck for getting into the league in 2014, but the debate about how best to develop the National Leagues is likely to rumble on for much longer than that.

Irish Football Round-Up

Firstly an apology for the lack of an Irish football preview this weekend past on Double Coverage. However it was still a great weekend of football in the Shamrock Bowl Conference and IAFL-1 and another division champion was crowned, without a match even being played in that division.

Photo by Nathan James Sharrocks

BAFANL full time results

Premiership North

Coventry Jets 0 vs 19 Tamworth Phoenix

Birmingham Bulls 6 vs 14 Lancashire Wolverines

Premiership South

London Warriors 47 vs 0 Peterborough Saxons

Sussex Thunder 20 vs 0 South Wales Warriors

National Central

Staffordshire Surge 7 vs 28Leicester Falcons 

Lincolnshire Bombers 0 vs 65 Merseyside Nighthawks

National North

D C Presidents 56 vs 18 Dundee Hurricanes

National South

Bristol Apache 37 vs 3 Cornish Sharks

Farnham Knights 41 vs 0 Swindon Storm

Oxford Saints 19 vs 12 Bournemouth Bobcats  

Gloucester Centurions 19 vs 26 Solent Thrashers

National South Central

Maidstone Pumas 6 vs 44 Bedfordshire Blue Raiders

Milton Keynes Pathfinders 20 vs 7 Watford Cheetahs