American football is a sport that is still developing in our country. Unfortunately, it is far from being a very media sport and it struggles to find its place in the favorite sports of the French due to the lack of communication.
With the emergence of the NFL through social networks, more and more enthusiasts want to get into American football but it is still necessary to find an American football club near home.
Despite the lack of communication, American football welcomes new teams to its championship every year . It’s always a pleasure to see a club appear because I think it’s a small victory to promote this sport which so deserves to be known.
In this article, I’ll explain how the French league works, find a US football club near you and its differences with the National Football League.
The birth of American football
In the 1950s and 1960s, the NATO bases being located in France, the American soldiers decided to create some American football teams and a mini championship was created. Unfortunately this little league disappeared in 1966 with the relocation of NATO bases.
It was not until 1980 that the first official club was created thanks to Laurent Plégelatte . He is the founding father of American football in France. This first US football club is called the Spartacus of Paris .
In June 1981, the first official game of American football takes place and opposes the Spartacus of Paris to the Meteors of Nogent. The following year is the first edition of the French championship.
The creation of the French Federation of American Football (FFFA)
It was in 1983 that Laurent Plégelatte decided to create the French Federation of American Football . US football finally has its federation! The number of clubs makes it possible to have a first and second division championship.
It is also the year of the creation of the French American football team. She played her first match against Finland the same year.
Also read:
The various FFFA championships and conferences
The French championship is an amateur championship which takes place from January to June and consists of 4 divisions. In order, from the strongest to the weakest championship, we have the 1st Elite division, the 2nd division, the 3rd division and the regional championship. These divisions consist of conferences.
The conferences are formed in relation to the geographical location of the clubs in order to limit their travel time. We must not forget that these clubs are amateur clubs and must find sponsors to meet their financial needs.
You should know that the French system is not at all the same as the NFL system . While in NFL, the league is closed with a well-defined franchise number. In France, it’s the opposite! The system is completely open, the number of clubs is not limited and these clubs can progress or regress up and down a division. For example, the last club of the Elite will go down to 2nd division and the 1st club of D2 will go up to Elite.
Where the two systems (French and American) meet, it is in the composition of the season . That is to say that in France, you also have a regular season, playoffs and a grand final for each division.
The Elite Championship
It is the highest division of American football in France . It is made up of 12 clubs, 6 teams in the North conference and 6 teams in the South conference. The last of each conference goes down to the 2nd division and the first 3 of each conference go to the playoff.
The first of each conference is directly qualified in the semi-finals as long as the other clubs are in Wild Card. The 2nd of the North conference plays against the 3rd of the South conference and vice versa. Then the winners play against the 1st of one of the two conferences for the matches of the semi-finals. The two winners meet for the final.
The D2 championship
The 2nd division championship is made up of 16 clubs divided into 2 conferences, 8 teams in the North conference and 8 teams in the South conference. These 2 conferences each have 2 hens, hen A and hen B. In each hen, we find 4 teams. These pools may refer to the NFL divisions.
The last of each pool goes down to the 3rd division, i.e. 4 teams and the first 2 of each pool qualify for the playoff. For each conference, the 1st of Pool A plays against the 2nd of Pool B and the 1st of Pool B against the 2nd of Pool A in a conference semi-final match. The two winners play against each other in the conference final to be conference champion and secure a place in the Elite.
Conference champions play against each other to define the D2 champion and win the Golden Helmet .
The D3 championship
The 3rd division championship is made up of 40 clubs , 20 in the North conference and 20 in the South conference. These 2 conferences each have 4 hens, hen A, hen B, hen C and hen D. In each hen, we find 5 teams.
The last of each pool goes down regional and the first 2 of each pool qualify for the playoff. These playoffs work the same as the D2 championship except that there are additional conference quarter-finals.
In each conference, the two teams in the final move up to the 2nd division. The conference champions play against each other to define the D3 champion and win the Silver helmet .
Regional championships
There are two regional championships, the R1 and the R2 . Each regional championship has 4 or 5 teams. You should know that in the regional championship, some clubs are only a few years old and sometimes even some championships are played with 9 players instead of 11 because the team does not have a sufficiently complete workforce to play with 11.
The first of each group are qualified directly or participate in a jump-off for the rise in D3 . There can be up to 12 regional championships, therefore 12 qualified teams for 8 places, so it is necessary to organize play-offs. To move up from regional to D3, the club must have certain criteria in addition to sports results. We will see these criteria together a little further down in this article.
List of clubs by region
You decided to play American football. Well done, I congratulate you! However, you don’t know how to find a club near you. To facilitate your search, here is the list of American football clubs in France .
There may be a few clubs missing, so don’t hesitate to google “American Football + City Name”. With this method, you will be able to quickly find if there is a club near you. Most French US Football teams have a Facebook page. If you can’t find anything, you can always get information from the FFFA.
- Anju Bobby George
- Anjali Bhagwat