International American Football Heads Into Busy Season in Europe

There is plenty of football action coming up in Europe over the next two months as a raft of international exhibition games are scheduled.

Team Italy vs Swiss4

Italy beat Switzerland 30-19 in January

First up is Belgium taking on Slovakia in Ostend, Belgium August 22 in the Treasure Cup. This will be the third tuneup for the Belgian Barbarians in preparation for their IFAF Europe qualifier in October against Holland. Slovakia has not played since 2013 when they lost to the Czech Republic 38-6.

Belgium, who defeated Kuwait in February, will add another friendly on September 12 when they travel to Gdynia, Poland to face Team Poland. This is the first game for the Polish national team since 2013.

Poland - national team v Holland 2013

Poland lost to Holland in 2013, 37-14

Italy’s Team Blue will host the Serbian National Team on September 13 in their first game since defeating Switzerland earlier this year.

Switzerland warms up for its IFAF Europe qualifier against Slovakia with a game against Team Holland in Thun, Switzerland on September 19.

Serbia takes on the USA Team Eagles in Serbia on September 26 and then Hungary invites the Czech Republic to Budapest to face Team Hungary on September 27.

Team Poland may well be the busiest with three games in the space of five weeks. They take on Belgium on September 12, then host Team Russia two weeks later on September 26. Finally they head to Pardubice to face the Czech Republic on October 11.

Slovakia travels to Belgium August 22 and then faces Switzerland in an IFAF Europe qualifier September 26 as mentioned earlier.

The Dutch Lions, Holland’s national team, were busy last year first losing to the Czech Republic in October 12-6, and then traveling down to Spain to defeat Team Catalonia 36-26 later that month. They will play Switzerland on September 19 in a tune up for their IFAF qualifier against Belgium on October 24.

We will be previewing the IFAF Europe qualifiers and would like to thank Filippo Rostoni as usual for his never-ending invaluable help.

If we have missed a game please let us know and we will post it.

Roger Kelly is an editor and a writer for AFI. A former PR Director the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League for 7 years, he now lives in Sweden writing about and scouting American Football throughout the world.