France
France will fly the flag for Europe
About the Team
France Returns To The International Stage
France arrives at the 2009 IFAF Junior World Championship having qualified as the third-placed team at the 2008 European Junior Championship.France won the bronze medal at the biannual tournament in Spain and with it the right to play in Canton for the world crown with a 28-14 win over Denmark. During group play, France beat Spain 45-15, edged by Russia 7-6 and lost 20-13 to Sweden.
France is no stranger to international competition on American shores having competed twice as Europe's representative at the NFL Global Junior Championship, a 19-and-under tournament played annually in the Super Bowl host city from 1997 to 2007.
In Jacksonville in 2005 as reigning European Junior champions, France lost to Mexico, Canada and the United States, but recorded a 7-6 victory over Japan in group play. In 2007, again as champions of Europe, the French team lost to Japan and Canada during the group stages in Miami and went down 14-6 to Panama in the fifth place playoff game.
The first game of American football was played in France in 1919 when American soldiers who remained on French territory after the First World War played in the former Parc des Princes stadium.
The first French team Spartacus de Paris was formed in 1980 and in turn the French Federation of American Football (FFFA) was born in 1983 with nine clubs and 600 licensed players.
In 1995 the FFFA created the Elite Championship first division, which was named Casque de Diamant (translated as Helmet of Diamond). The same year, running back Thibault Giroux became the first French player to be selected for NFL Europe and played for the Barcelona Dragons. He was followed in later years by the likes of Marc Soumah, Samyr Hamoudi and Phillipe Gradent, who was named Defensive Player of the Year in NFL Europe in 2005.
In 2004, France won its first international title when the junior national team triumphed at the European Junior Championship. France successfully defended its title in 2006 and claimed third place in Sevilla, Spain, in 2008.
In 2005, the French senior national team took the Bronze Medal at the 2005 World Games in Germany. In 2007 France lost to Japan and Sweden in the group stages of the third IFAF World Championship held in Tokyo and to Korea in the fifth place playoff.
France - www.fffa.org