Today Austria; tomorrow . . .

By Os Davis  |   Monday, April 14, 2008  |  Comments( 20 )

Oakland Raiders
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Who the heck are the Swarco Raiders? Based in Innsbruck (yes, they play American football in Austria; believe it or not, some are actually not bad), the team is named a la the Charlotte Bobcats for its owner, businessman Manfred Swarovski. The Oakland Raiders recently announced a "cross-cultural relationship" with their Austrian counterpart in hopes of pumping up Swarco’s efforts in Web site management, marketing and coaching.

In addition to playing games within the Austrian Football League, the Swarco Raiders (Tirol) are now a mainstay in the European Football League; Swarco entered the league after taking Austria Bowls in 2004 and 2006. The EFL is a typical Euro-style superleague comprised of one dozen teams. Founded in 1986, this association has recently been dominated by the Vienna Vikings, who have participated in six of the last seven Eurobowls and have won the last four.

(It must be something in the water in Vienna: The Vienna Knights have dominated division I of the Austrian Football League for years as well...)

Just born in the area, too, is the eight-team Central European Football League, an amalgamation of top squads from Austria, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia, countries in which the game’s popularity is suddenly booming.

The Swarco Raiders’ coaching staff will be participating in the Raiders International Guest Coach Program in 2008; last year saw Lishey of Sweden, Li Chaoran of China and Alfredo Flores (hey, good name there, eh?) of Mexico attend the Raiders Napa Valley training complex during the spring. No announcement has made regarding which Swarco coaches will travel to Napa Valley, though the head coach is listed as one Bernhard Binstorfer.

Binstorfer played tailback with the – guess who – Vienna Vikings. The NFL, in conjunction with the European Federation of American Football, awarded him the “EFAF Youth Coach of the Year” title back in 2004, as Binstorfer was climbing to the top of the Austrian coaching food chain.

If you think playing American football is just a lark for rich expatriates in Europe, incidentally, you may be surprised by the gridiron infrastructure in some countries on The Continent. Despite the sad demise of NFL Europa (or, more realistically, NFL Deutschland by the time they wrapped things up), they’re still playing a lot of der Football in the Old World.

Beyond the European Football League’s foundation in the 1980s with a set of teams from Western Europe, the game has slowly spread eastward, where the game has exploded in popularity with mostly rugby-free countries such as Austria, Russia, and Ukraine. The Swarco Raiders were established in 1992, played their first season in ’93, and today have six levels’ worth – replete with the expected pageantry, cheerleaders, junior leagues, again in the classic European soccer club organizational style – of American football going on.

As for Innsbruck’s own Al Davis, Manfred Swarovski is the third-generation owner of the family crystal production business; grandfather Daniel invented a machine to automate crystal grinding, essentially singlehandedly eliminating the need for grinding by hand and speeding the process of crystal production by a hundredfold. Manfred has now headed Swarovski International for over 50 years.

“This is another milestone in the young history of the Swarco Raiders,” said Swarovski. “This is just a start and can really be a basis for a long-term relationship in which both organizations can benefit from each other.”

Kudos to the Raiders for this program, and congratulations to Swarco for being so honored. Good luck in Napa Valley; perhaps you’ll get that je ne sais quoi that’ll put you over those pesky Vikings.

Berichten über das große Spiel während des Jahres an RealFootball365.com
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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