GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 36 - October 17, 2015 | Page 7

VIENNA, AUSTRIA
2015 EUROPEAN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
OCTOBER 16, 2015
BY DENIS O’BRIEN

The highlight of the European Gaelic Football Championships takes place this weekend on Saturday October 17 in
Vienna, Austria and promises to be yet another stellar tournament on the continent of Europe.
European GAA is one of the fast growing regions for Gaelic
Sports anywhere in the world with games in all four GAA
codes now being played in an impressive 24 countries. From
its infancy in 1999 when the European County Board was set
up with only 4 clubs made up primarily of an Irish diaspora
base, things have skyrocketed to today’s 75 clubs where in
the past 5 years alone there has been an annual 20% increase
in the number of new clubs being born with more and more
native players and international players getting involved.
Last year there were 26 teams in action at Maastricht, Holland with increased numbers again this year of 34 teams broken into 23 men’s sides and 10 ladies. The breakdown of this
year’s numbers overall is also impressive in that there are 13
new teams in men’s and 6 in ladies from last year’s finals.
The Dutch city is normally the home-base for the finals but
it was dec