As announced earlier, the Dutch Junior Lions, who had qualified for the IFAF 2019 Men’s U19 European Championships to be held in Bologna, Italy from July 29 to August 4, 2019, have pulled out of the tournament due to financial issues.
Head coach Wouter van den Boogaard had hoped that the Dutch Federation of American Football would come up with a solution, but unfortunately it did not work out.
“Unfortunately we have to announce with pain in our hearts that we have not been able to financially complete our participation in the European Championship for the Dutch Junior Lions. Despite all the efforts of the Management, Fundraisers Team, Coaches, Support Staff, DJL selection players and the AFBN until the last moment, there was not enough funding available to pay the high costs of our participation. Subsequently, the AFBN board decided to withdraw the participation of the Dutch Junior Lions in the European Championship in Bologna – Italy.”
The decision, which comes with only three weeks before the tournament kicks off, left organizers, the FIDAF, Italian Federation of American Football, and IFAF, the International Federation of American Football, scrambling. The next best team is Spain, who were beaten by Holland in a qualifier 15-9.
According to IFAF, the Spanish Federation of American Football, has agreed to take the vacant spot left by the Netherlands.
With that, the pairings should now be as follows:
The number one seeded Team Sweden will face Norway #8, the Austrians #2 will take on Spain#7, Denmark, ranked #3 will play the host country Italy #6 while Team France #4 and Finland #5 will square off.