The BAFA National Leagues (BAFANL, formerly the BAFA Community Leagues) are the primary American football competition in England, Scotland and Wales. They were formed by the British American Football Association in 2010 following the collapse of the British American Football League to coordinate contact football within Great Britain. There are currently 62 teams who compete in 12 divisions across three levels of football. The 10 teams who contest both the Premier Division North and South compete to reach the Britbowl. The current champions are the Tamworth Phoenix, whilst the London Warriors are the most successful having won 4 titles. BAFA also operate a flag football, Women's division as well as a Youth league across all age ranges.
Video BAFA National Leagues
History
American football was introduced to the United Kingdom during the early part of the 20th century by American servicemen stationed in the country. The first recorded match took place on 23 November 1910 at Crystal Palace, London, where a team made up of the crew from USS Idaho defeated their counterparts from USS Vermont 19-0. During the Second World War, matches were played by American and Canadian servicemen stationed in the UK at venues throughout the country. This included the 'Tea Bowl' game played at the White City Stadium in 1944, and this was followed by the creation of the United States Armed Forces Europe (USAFE) league in 1946. This league consisted of teams from American military bases throughout Europe, with one of the league's three conferences made up of teams based in the UK - teams from this conference won the league championship thirteen times until the competition ceased in 1993.
The first teams open to British players were established in 1983, and competition began the following year in the form of a series of one-off games. The match results were compiled into a 'Merit Table', with teams playing more than three games eligible for the championship--the first champions were the London Ravens, who won all ten of their matches.
Tensions grew between the directors of British American Football League and those of the British American Football Association, the governing body throughout 2009 and at the beginning of 2010, BAFL formally, but unconstitutionally, withdrew from BAFA. This led to uproar from the teams within BAFL, ultimately signalling the end for BAFL as an entity. The league ceased operations on 1 April 2010. The league was replaced by the BAFA Community Leagues for the 2010 season. This organisation, run under the umbrella of the governing body, rebranded in 2011 to become the BAFA National Leagues. Hundreds of clubs have since been formed, playing both full contact football and flag football at senior, university and youth level. Many of these clubs have since folded, renamed or merged with other local teams, but a few of the older clubs survive today.
Maps BAFA National Leagues
Season format
The BAFANL season format consists of a ten game season for Premier Division teams and First Division teams, with 8 for Second Division. The League opeates between April and August with play-off games usually running into September. The winner of top two teams from both the Premier Division North and Premier Division South make up the semi final in which they will play to win a place in the Britbowl. First and Second Division teams aim to win promotion to the division above by attempting to reach their respective play-off final. The team that finishes bottom of their Division are relegated to their Regional division below. (excluding Division Two) Since 2014, The Britbowl winners will automatically qualify to play in the IFAF Europe Champions League for the following season. European games run aside the clubs domestic season. Prior to 2014 qualification was for the EFAF Cup.
Stadiums
The use of Stadiums in the BAFANL is scarce due to most clubs running on a tight budget. Most clubs operate from Rugby Union clubs, University facilities or High Schools however some teams do play inside stadiums which have seating capacities for spectators. The Britbowl itself has recently been played at Sixways Stadium in Worcester, while Division 1 and 2 finals are hosted at the South Leeds Stadium. At present the Halton Spartans ground share of the Select Security Stadium with Rugby League team Widnes Vikings constitutes as the highest capacity stadium within the BAFANL with 13,350 seats.
Teams
Premier Division
The BAFA's Premier Division for the 2018 season comprises eleven teams, split into the North and South conferences. Within each conference, each team plays each other twice. There will be 2 rounds of playoff football. The top ranked team in the North will host the second ranked team in the South whilst the top ranked team in the South will host the second ranked team in the North. The winners will then compete for the BritBowl. The team who finishes bottom of each division are relegated to Division 1.
Premier North
Premier South
Division One
For the 2018 season, the second tier has expanded to 20 teams, now divided into 4 conferences: the Northern North, Northern South, Southern Central and the Southern East. Each team plays the others in their conference twice during the regular season as well as all teams playing two opponents on three occasions. There is no inter-conference play until the playoffs.
Top 2 in each of the 4 conference enter North Semi Final & South Semi Final. N#1 v N#4 & N#2 v N#3 (Same in South). North Champ v South Champ for Div 1 Championship. The two teams reaching the final will both win promotion to the Premier.
NFC 1 North
NFC 1 South
SFC 1 Central
SFC 1 South
Division Two
The third tier consists of two conferences, the Northern and Southern Football Conferences, which are further geographically subdivided into three regions each: the NFC North, Central, and South, and the SFC West, South, and East. Each team plays the others in their region twice during the regular season. Within each conference, the playoffs are structured identically to the Division One system described above, with the NFC 2 Bowl and SFC 2 Bowl deciding separate champions.
NFC 2 North
NFC 2 Central
NFC 2 South
SFC 2 West
SFC 2 South
SFC 2 East
Associate Process
New teams must undergo an indefinite associate period before they are granted full member status of the national leagues. A number of criteria must be met, involving successfully completing a number of games, recruiting an amount of new players, proof of required finances and the creation of a club committee. Associate teams spend their seasons playing each other and League teams in what are essentially friendly fixtures. Some of the current Associate teams are also prevoius League teams that have dropped out of the BAFANL at some stage.
Media coverage
The Britbowl as well as the Divisional Play-off finals are live streamed on Youtube via DblCoverage.com and Onside Productions. The programmes feature in-game commentary and interviews. Onside began operating by streaming Nottingham Caesars games in 2016 before being brought on by DblCoverage.com to broadcast the National finals as well as Great Britain national American football team games
DblCoverage.com is the largest British American Football-focused media outlet and community hub, featuring news, league results and standings for all formats of the contact game, as well as opinion articles and editorials.
Their social media pages represent the largest online community of British American Football players and fans.
Notable people
Winners
Britbowl
Winners of the Britbowl since the BAFA National Leagues 2010 formation.
Division One Bowl
In 2015 there was a separate Bowl final for both the Northern and Southern sections.
Division Two Bowl
Each year there is both a Northern and Southern Bowl winner.
References
External links
- Official league website
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments