One more nation will qualify for the inaugural 2009 International Federation of American Football Junior World Championship (ages 19 and under) this weekend and one will move a step closer to joining the eight team, four continent field that will assemble in Canton, Ohio, this summer.
Two qualifying games will take place on Saturday, Jan. 24, in the Australian capital of Canberra between Australia and New Zealand and in Panama City between Panama and the Bahamas.
Six countries - Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden and the U.S. - have already sealed a berth at the summer tournament, which will kick off at Fawcett Stadium at the Pro Football Hall of Fame on June 27 and play will continue through July 5. These six nations will be joined by either Australia or New Zealand, who meet at the West Belconnen Leagues Club in Holt, a suburb of Canberra, at 5 p.m. local time (1 a.m. EST).
Panama and the Bahamas meet at Balboa Stadium in Panama City at 2:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. EST) for the right to then travel to take on Mexico on Feb. 14 for the last remaining qualifying spot at the Junior World Championship.
"It is testament to the growth of the game of American football internationally that we have such a diverse group of countries from across the world who are determined to compete at the highest level of our sport," IFAF President Tommy Wiking said. "Only a few years ago it would have been almost unthinkable that these countries would be meeting in qualifiers of such magnitude."
New Zealand at Australia, Saturday, Jan. 24, 5 p.m., Canberra: The New Zealand ‘Ironblacks' triumphed 14-8 over the Australian Junior Outback team the last time the two rival nations met at the junior level in 2003.
This year's 45-man New Zealand squad was selected from a total of 248 players who were invited to attend a series of training camps held to test and assess the country's junior football talent. A preliminary squad of 80 was invited to two separate trial weekends in October, held in New Zealand's capital Wellington and in its largest city Auckland, which saw the talented kiwis compete for final selection.
On the Aussie side, more than 90 of the best young gridiron players were invited to attend a camp at the country's peak training facility, the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. A group of 45 of were then selected to begin a pre-game training camp on Tuesday, Jan. 20, under direction of head coach John Ludvigson to prepare for the visit by New Zealand.
Bahamas at Panama, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2:30 p.m., Panama City: The Bahamas will make history by playing the nation's first-ever junior national team game when a 45-man roster travels to Panama City. Youth players have only been playing organized games under the Bahamas American Football Federation (BAFF) for two seasons, and in the fall of 2008, eight community-based high school tackle football teams were established with a total of 320 players.Panama's last venture into international competition resulted in a 14-6 win over France in the 2007 NFL Global Junior Championship in South Florida.
New Zealand Meets Australia, Bahamas Meets Panama in JWC Qualifiers
January 21, 2009, revised January 26, 2009