BAFA National Leagues

The London Blitz prior to their 2011 EFAF Cup match in Spain

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.[2][3] 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,[4] 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.[5][6]

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.[7][8]

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.

British counties with BAFA teams in 2020
  NFC (Northern Football Conference)
  SFC Southern Football Conference

The BAFANL season format consists of two Conferences, the Northern Football Conference (NFC) and Southern Football Conference (SFC), within each Conference there are three levels of competition starting at Premier Division and filtering down to Division's One and Two. Teams can be switched between the NFC and SFC depending on the geographic location of each teams at the beginning of the season. In the past when Division One has been loaded with teams from the middle of England there has been a designated Midlands Football Conference (MFC), although this is currently defunct. The current format consists of a ten-game season for Premier Division teams and First Division teams, with the Second Division now playing eight games. The League is a summer sport in the UK and runs opposite to the NFL, with teams beginning pre-season training in January to compete in the regular season that takes place between April and August. The play-off games usually running into September, with the finals taking place towards the middle of the month. Following the climax of the regular season, the eventual winners and runners-up from both Premier Division's make up the semi-final in which they will compete to win a place in the Britbowl. 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.

Unlike American Football competitions in North America such as the NFL, NCAA and CFL, American Football in the UK runs a similar promotion and relegation format to that of Association football (soccer) in the United Kingdom. Teams from the First and Second Division 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 (excluding Division Two) are relegated to their relevant Regional division in the level below. Although there is no active on-the-field promotion process to Division Two, there are a number of Non-League sides who operate in the "Associate Process" that are active but instead of playing to win promotion to the League they must gain entry by application to the British American Football Association in which each applying team must meet a number of different criteria from playing a number of assessed exhibition games, sustainability, facilities and good coaching practice. BAFA have the ability to relegate any BAFANL team back to Associate Status if that club are failing to make the standard expected of them. If a team withdraw from the season but indicate their wish to continue operating then they will spend the following season at Associate level.[9]

The game itself is run following the latest NCAA rules,[10] this has been in practice since the 2005 season. There is currently no limit on Roster size, unlike the NFL's 53 man setup. Unlike the majority of European leagues, British American football is currently amateur as opposed to semi-professional.[11] Clubs largely operate and turnover financially through sponsorship and player subscriptions. Where as it is not currently illegal for a team to pay a wage to coaches, they are forbidden from paying a wage to players. Players currently have to pay a yearly fee to BAFA as well as contributing to the club they play for, regardless of stature or whether the player has been a professional elsewhere. The transfer window for players being allowed to move teams usually opens in October and closes midway through the season in July. Transfers are all handled through an online portal registration system in which the player requests the move and has to wait for both teams to accept the deal before finalisation is sent to BAFA.

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 coined as "Caesars TV" in 2016 before being brought on by DblCoverage.com to broadcast the National finals as well as Great Britain national American football team games [12]

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.[13]

Their social media pages represent the largest online community of British American Football players and fans.[14]

In 2019, Onside provided the livestream of the U19 Junior National Championship and BritBowl XXXIII for BBC Sport.[15]

The use of Stadiums in the BAFANL is sporadic due to most clubs running on a budget that relies heavily on sponsorship and subscriptions. Most BAFANL clubs operate from Rugby Union clubs, University or High Schools sports fields or local athletics parks, however some teams do play inside larger sports stadiums which have seating capacities for spectators. The Britbowl itself has recently been played at Allianz Park in London and the Sixways Stadium in Worcester, while Division 1 and 2 finals are often 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. Other prominent stadiums that are currently in use in Britball include Manchester Titans home field at the National Speedway Stadium. Notable stadiums that have been used in the past includes Doncaster Mustangs use of the Keepmoat Stadium, London Olympians former home at the Crystal Palace Athletics Stadium, the AJ Bell Stadium by the Manchester Titans and De Montfort Park by Leicester Falcons.

DCBL Stadium, Widnes, Cheshire

Sixways Stadium, Worcester

De Montfort Park, Hinckley

Allianz Park, London

South Leeds Stadium, Leeds

Finsbury Park, London

Crystal Palace, London

Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster

AJ Bell Stadium, Salford

There are currently 70 teams in the BAFANL who have full membership status. Over the years many teams have formed and folded with only a small handful of original teams from the early 1980s remaining. A lot of teams trace their heritage back through predecessor teams and a large number of BAFA sides have changed their identity on one or sometimes two occasions. Colchester Gladiators (formed in 1983) of Division Two are the oldest team to be operating in their original identity. Other original sides include the Birmingham Bulls, Chester Romans, Nottingham Caesars, East Kilbride Pirates and the Crewe Railroaders. Although the London Olympians are the most successful British side, the London Warriors hold the title following on from the BAFANL's official formation in 2010.

Premier Division

The BAFANL Premier Division for the 2020 season comprises twelve teams, split into the North and South Divisions. The BAFA Premier Division North and the BAFA Premier Division South. Within each division each team plays each other twice. There will be 2 rounds of playoff football with 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 for the following season and are replaced by both of the Division 1 winners. Teams can be swapped between the North and South Division's for a following season depending on the geographical location of teams that may be promoted to the division.

Wolves

Titans

Nighthawks

Steelers

Giants

Phoenix

Aztecs

Exiles

Blitz

Olympians

Warriors

Thrashers

Locations of 2020 BAFA Premier Division Teams

Division One

Roughnecks

Pirates

Tigers

Goliaths

Vikings

Romans

H.Spartans

Wolverines

Falcons

Caesars

Revolution

Rams

Bobcats

Knights

Dreadnoughts

Warriors

Thunder

Cheetahs

Stallions

Hornets

E.Spartans

O.Saints

Cats

Locations of 2020 BAFA Division 1 Teams

The BAFANL Division One is the second tier of British American Football, for the 2020 season it holds 24 teams, now divided into 4 Divisions. The Divisions are grouped into a North and South Divide with NFC standing for "Northern Football Conference" and the SFC being the "Southern Football Conference". The current individual names of the each Divisions are the NFC 1 North, the NFC 1 South, the SFC 1 Central and the SFC 1 East. Each team plays the others in their Division twice during the regular season as well as all teams playing two opponents on three occasions. There is no inter-division games until the playoffs with the top two teams in each division entering into what is potentially a three-game Play-off campaign with the initial games being played regionally. The winner of both the Northern and Southern Play off's will win promotion to the Premier League and then face other for the Division One Bowl game in order to take home the trophy.[16] The team who finishes bottom of each division is relegated to Division Two.

Notable Players and Coaches who have featured either in the BAFA National Leagues or any of its predecessor Leagues that have at any time represented the domestic game of American Football in the United Kingdom.

Player	Team	Notes
Phil Alexander	Farnham Knights	Kicker for the London Monarchs, former professional association football player for Norwich City and chief executive of Crystal Palace.[22]
Jermaine Allen	London Olympians	Played in the NFL for Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints
Marvin Allen	London Warriors (2008-)	Played in the NFL for Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami Dolphins
Marcel Bellefeuille	Crawley Raiders	OC at CFL sides including Montreal Alouettes, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers[23]
Roderick Bradley	London Blitz	Played "Spartan" on ITV game show Gladiators
Jason Brisbane	London Blitz	Played in the NFL for San Diego Chargers.
Dwain Chambers	Farnham Knights	British Olympic Athletics track sprinter and former NFL Europe player with Hamburg Sea Devils
Charles Dagnall	Leicester Falcons	Former professional Cricketer and BBC Radio presenter
Aden Durde	London Warriors	Defensive Coach in the NFL with Atlanta Falcons and played for Kansas City Chiefs
Victor Ebubedike	London Ravens, London Olympians	NFL Europe player with the London Monarchs.[24]
Mike Grossner	Nottingham Caesars, Leicester Falcons	Former NCAA coach with Western Colorado Mountaineers
Christian Holmes	Tamworth Phoenix (2016)	Played in NCAA Division 1 for Mississippi State from 2011-2014.
Stephen Hutchinson	London Blitz	Played in NFL Europe for London Monarchs and Hamburg Blue Devils
Martin Johnson	Leicester Panthers	Professional Rugby Union player and World Cup winning captain of the England team.[25]
Vernon Kay	London Warriors (2011-2014)	Television presenter, formerly of Channel 4’s NFL show
Efe Obada	London Warriors (2014)	Played in the NFL with Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers
Phoebe Schecter	Staffordshire Surge, GB Lions Women	Intern Coach in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills.
Bradlee Van Pelt	Leicester Falcons (2010)	Quarter Back in the NFL for Denver Broncos and Houston Texans. Also Colorado State NCAA graduate.
Ricky Whittle	Manchester Titans	Actor who notably had lengthy roles in Hollyoaks and Dream Team.

• Britbowl
• NFL Europe
• American football in the United Kingdom
• British Universities American Football League

• Official league website