Football’s Italian story starts more than a century ago, with a Thanksgiving Day game in Genoa between the crews of the USS Connecticut and the USS Kansas. It was a one-off game, and decades passed before the sport returned in any organized way: first with Allied troops, in the Bambino Bowl in Bari and the Spaghetti Bowl in Florence, the latter drawing a crowd of 25,000, both played between 1944 and 1945; then through U.S. bases that kept the game alive into the 1950s and 196

On October 4th, at The Social Hub in Bologna, the Italian Football League began preparations for the upcoming 2027 season with a press conference and a league meeting that offered a preview of the league's new year. In the presence of the press and top figures in Italian football, the new season of the country's premier league was launched, featuring numerous new developments and the announcement of several partnerships. What new developments and challenges will the IFL fac

Starting his coaching career at The University of Arizona in 2000, Andrew Weidinger has been everywhere, and then some, on his path to becoming EFA London’s Head Coach. "Like every kid who has ever put the pads on, all I ever wanted to do was play in the NFL. Then I managed to crack a vertebrae when I was in high school and couldn’t play anymore, which got me interested in coaching. I was very fortunate to have a lot of great opportunities and work with a lot of great people

Wembley Stadium has staged just about everything football has to offer. On Saturday, it added another chapter to its history: College Football. Kansas and Arizona State crossed the Atlantic for a Week 3 matchup that brought the sights, sounds and spectacle of a fall Saturday in America to the heart of London. LONDON BECOMES THE CENTER OF EUROPEAN FOOTBALL For one Saturday in September, London became the center of the College Football world. The British capital is hardly a

Long before the NFL played regular season games in London, Munich, or Madrid, it tried something far bolder: building entire professional franchises on European soil. In July 1989, NFL owners approved the creation of the World League of American Football, a genuinely transatlantic experiment and the first time the league had ever tried to plant a professional, developmental version of itself outside North America. When the WLAF kicked off on March 23, 1991, ten teams took th

With the conclusion of the tackle football seasons in Italy, "News You Can Use" - the most beloved and imitated column - returns to First Down Mag, bringing you all the latest updates on Italian football. From the first to the third division, and from North to South, here is everything you need to know about roster moves and the latest news from the world of Italian gridiron. Here is the first batch of news from the Italian football scene. Enjoy the read. Cameren Grodhaus

We've now won four championships in the university league, and in that arena we've long been a college team playing football at the very top level. In past years, though, as a club we struggled to carry that success over to the pro league. Even though the 2022 pro semifinal was a huge blow for us, I'd say it was the game that fueled our ambition and made us more determined than any other. But reducing the four championships won over the last two years — across both the pro an

Biggest Takeaway As the GFL season moves toward the postseason, the league has started to separate into clear tiers. At the top, three teams have consistently looked like the strongest championship threats. Dresden Monarchs/Potsdam Royals/Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns The Dresden Monarchs, Potsdam Royals, and Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns have separated themselves from the rest of the GFL. These are clearly the three strongest teams in the league and the teams best positioned to ma

DUBLIN DRESSES UP FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL AGAIN Throughout the week, Dublin’s streets were dressed in TCU purple and unmistakable Carolina Blue, and long before kickoff it felt as though the Horned Frogs held a slight advantage in the stands. Close to 10,000 fans had travelled from Texas, filling the pubs of Temple Bar and much of the city centre with TCU colours. In total, more than 14,000 supporters made the trip from the United States for this year’s Classic. Fewer than in