The Emirates American Football League has actively been trying to extend their reach into international territories and have taken another step by travelling to play at the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Florida this week.
The UAE Falcons have two teams competing at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista as the U15 squad will take part in the Midget division and the U13 group playing in Junior Midget.
This is the first time the UAE will be represented at the annual event and the Falcons will be joined by seven other international teams, facing regular competitors from Canada and Mexico.
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“This is part and parcel of our overall approach which is to really look out and try to take our programme as far up field as possible,” said Patrick Campos, EAFL’s director of youth football.
“We didn’t really want to tip our toe in the water and say let’s go play a game in Kuwait or Egypt. We wanted to do big things and generate as much excitement and enthusiasm around the programme as we could, so China was the first step and we had this circled as the second step.”
China is where the U19 and U15 Falcons travelled as part of the EAFL’s first initiative to expand internationally. They also hosted Germany’s Dusseldorf Panther and now Campos is planning on bringing China over as part of a tri-nation competition next spring.
“The way we envision the youth football programme with the EAFL is really as a trailblazer, a trend-setter,” Campos said.
“Not just doing new things for our kids, but also creating more unity among youth football organisations internationally.”
At the Pop Warner Super Bowl, the Falcons won’t be playing against the dozens of talented American teams from across the nation, but they will witness the high level of youth football firsthand.
“It’s a great opportunity for our kids to get over there because they’re going to be rubbing shoulders with some of the best youth football players America has to offer,” said Campos.
“Among those players are going to be future Division I college players and future NFL players.” Both Falcons teams play their first game tomorrow as the U15 face Toluca and the U13 meet Puebla.
