Swedish American Football Federation Reaches the Mid-Summer Break

EUROBALL UPDATES

Hässleholm Hurricanes' Warhorse

Pär Jönsson

The games played this past weekend marked the end of play in the entire Swedish American Football Federation (SAFF) for a month as the league takes their traditional Summer hiatus until starting action up again on August 6th.

SAFF has scheduled regular season games during the last four weekends of August and the first weekend in September.

The eight team, two Pool style, Division I playoffs will be played throughout the remainder of the month of September. Each Pool includes two first place and two second place teams. Each Pool will also be made up of only one team from each of SAFF's four Division I Conferences (Norra/North, Östra/East, Västra/West and Södra/South).

The two Division I Pool winners will then play a relegation game against SAFF's Superserian Division's two bottom feeders, currently the Örebro Black Knights (1-4-1) and the Arlanda Jets (0-5-1). A win in a relegation game would potentially, if they can financially afford it, move the Division I team into next year's Superserien Division.

I said "potentially" because the Superserien Division is located primarily in the greater Stockholm megalopolis. Thus for a team like Kristianstad or Ystad to make the move up to the Superserian Division would mean a need to raise massive amounts of Kroners to pay for vastly increased travel costs to play five Superserian regular season games near the nation's capital, a round trip of about 700 miles each week.

2011 Division I Södra (South) Standings

The top two teams at the end of the regular season will play in the 2011 SAFF Division I Playoffs along with the top two teams from each of the other three Division I Conferences.

Kristianstad Predators (7-1)

Ystad Rockets (6-2)

Limhamn Griffins (4-2)

Lugi Vikings (3-4)

Ekeby Greys (1-6)

Hässleholm Hurricanes (0-6)

Week 10 Results

Ekeby 28 - Hässleholm 6

Limhamn 32 - Lugi 13

BYES: Kristianstad and Ystad

Week 11 Games

Saturday, August 6th

Limhamn (4-2) at Hässleholm (0-6)

Sunday, August 7th

Ekeby (1-6) at Ystad (6-2)

BYES: Kristianstad (7-1) and Lugi (3-4)

SAAF Division I Södra Notes: As you no doubt already noticed, our Hässleholm Hurricanes took home the Silver Medal for the sixth consecutive game this weekend. I don't know what to say exactly at this point other than, with games each of the last four weekends of the regular season, we need to show up.

A huge part of the Swedish football scene for all teams, at all levels, is who does or does not come back to their teams after the Mid-Summer Break to finish the season. A big part of our post-Summer Break success in 2010 was that the majority of our Hurricanes returned with a purpose in mind. If the team can do that again in 2011, then who knows, some wins down the stretch may definitelly be in order!

The Hurricanes last four games are all at home and are, in order, against Limhamn (4-2), Ystad (6-2), Ekeby (1-6) and Lugi (3-4).

As for Division I Södra's two playoff spots, it is now down to a three team race.

The Kristianstad Predators (7-1) lead the pack but finish with dangerous Lugi (3-4) at home and still in the hunt Limhamn (4-2) on the road.

The Ystad Rockets (6-2) have, arguably, the easiest path to the playoffs, closing out the campaign at home against Ekeby (1-6) and at Hässleholm (0-6).

The dark horse for the playoffs are the Limhamn Griffins (4-2) who could make the playoffs if they win out at home against Hässleholm (0-6), at Ekeby (1-6), and then in home games with Lugi (3-4) and with Kristianstad (7-1).

If Limhamn were to win out, then a three-way tie at the top with identical 8-2 records is a distinct possibility. In this scenario Kristianstad, Limhamn and Ystad would the teams tied for the two playoff spots and they would have all split their two games with each other. The next tie-breaker is . . . I don't have a clue.

Better start checking those birth certificates for all of your roster players just in case Italian Football League logic has made its way north this Spring and Summer.

A look at the other SAFF Conferences at the Mid-Summer Break:

2011 Division I Norra (North) Standings

Västerås Rodeers (5-0)

Uppsala 86ers (4-1)

Gefle Red Devils (4-1)

Westerbotten Huskies (2-3)

Arlanda Jets B (1-4)

Sundsvall Flames (1-4)

Jamtland Republicans (1-5)

2011 Division I Östra (East) Standings

Nyköping Baltic Beasts (5-0)

Roslagen Bulldogs (3-2)

Södertälje Truckers (3-2)

Eskilstuna Sharks (1-4)

Stockholm Meran Machine B (0-4)

2011 Division I Västra (West) Standings

Göteborg Marvels (5-0)

Karlskoga Wolves (3-2)

Lidköping Lakers (1-2)

Skövde Dukes (0-2)

Ulricehamn Chargers (0-3)

Finally, let's take a look at Sweden's premier American football conference:

2011 Superserian Standings

Carlstad Crusaders (5-0)

Tyresö Royal Crowns (4-2)

Stockholm Mean Machine (3-2)

STU Northside Bulls (3-3)

Örebro Black Knights (1-4-1)

Arlanda Jets (0-5-1)

Enjoy the Mid-Summer Break my Swedish friends!

Meanwhile, in Italy, the 2011 Italian Football League Super Bowl takes place next weekend.

This Saturday, July 9th at Parma's Stadio XXV Aprile - Via del Popolo, the #1 seeded Bologna Warriors (10-0) and the #2 seeded Parma Panthers (8-2) will tee it up for the IFL's top prize at 8:30 p.m. These two teams met in Week 6 of the IFL regular season back on April 30th with the Warriors prevailing at home 34-23.

Should be a good one!