It is fair to say that the history of American football in the United Kingdom has been a complicated one, with numerous different leagues starting and then closing down for one reason or another. Introduced to the country largely thanks to the American military stationed over here during the First and Second World Wars, it soon became apparent that British people would be interested in playing, and that’s why leagues of our own were launched. The leagues changed and altered over the years, which eventually led to the creation of the British American Football League.
A History of the League
It is impossible to talk about how and why the British American Football League came about without talking about the history of American football in the United Kingdom in a more general sense. The sport was first played on British soil, at least in a competitive manner, in 1910 when servicemen from the USS Idaho took on those from the USS Vermont, winning 19-0. In the Second World War, more US service people found themselves in the UK, and so the game was played more and more often, including the ‘Tea Bowl’ at White City Stadium between US and Canadian troops.
United States Armed Forces Europe League
This eventually led to the creation of the United States Armed Forces Europe League, which came into being in 1946 and continued to oversee matches until it was disbanded in 1993. In terms of the popularity amongst British sports fans, things really began to take off in 1982 when Channel 4, one of the country’s terrestrial broadcasters, began to show highlights from the National Football League on a weekly basis. The fact that association football was suffering from problems such as hooliganism at the time certainly helped gridiron take off, with around four million people watching Super Bowl XX.
Teams began to be created close to Air Force bases that boasted a strong American presence, including the likes of RAF Croughton, located in Northamptonshire. When the London Ravens took on the Northwich Spartans in 1983, that represented the first game between two exclusively British teams and saw the Ravens win 48-0. A few months later, representatives from 35 teams met at the Post House Hotel in Bedford so as to discuss the possible formation of an association, with 26 sides meeting again and creating the British American Football Federation as well as the American Football League United Kingdom.
Underlying Issues
In the months that followed, there were more than 40 teams competing, but the recession meant that players as well as the overall teams struggled for funding. By 1986, however, the British American Football League announced huge losses, leading to its liquidation. Budweiser had entered the fray not long before, and suddenly the 102 teams based across 18 divisions found themselves under the Budweiser banner for the forthcoming campaign. Meanwhile, the NFL was hosting an official game at Wembley for the first time when the Chicago Bears played the Dallas Cowboys.
It is not outrageous to suggest that not all of the people involved in American football in the United Kingdom demonstrated the best taste. There was, for example, a team called the Bristol Slave Traders, whilst another called Staines Removers was at least slightly humorous. Even so, the British American Football League was created in 1987, albeit under a different name, and soon American players began to be imported into the country to play games. In 1998, it became the primary league for American football in the UK, known initially as the British Senior League.
How It Was Structured
In 2005, the British Senior League became the British American Football League, which was the trading name of Gridiron Football League Ltd. The league itself had three divisions, which were Premier, 1, and 2. Each of the leagues had its own play-offs as well as a championship game that was designed to decide the winner. One of the key ways in which it differed from its American counterpart was in the fact that the two Championship teams were promoted to the league above, whilst the lowest-finishing teams in those divisions were relegated out to make room.
The league was only open to sides from England, Scotland, and Wales, largely on account of the fact that sides based in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland played their matches in the Irish American Football League, which was an all-Ireland affair. The final of the Premier division was the BritBowl, which was competed for annually and resulted in the winners being awarded the Boston Trophy. It was usually held at Sheffield’s Don Valley Stadium, but in 2008, a scheduling conflict with Rotherham United Football Club meant that it had to be switched to Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium.
How It Fell Apart
As the years progressed, tensions between the British American Football League and the British American Football Association (BAFA) grew. BAFA was the governing body of the sport, but directors of both organisations disagreed on how things should be run. As a result, the British American Football League decided to formally withdraw from BAFA, in a move that was seen as unconstitutional. The teams within the BAFL found it to be an outrageous move, causing uproar within the ranks of the sides who made up the league.
Soon, the entity that was the British American Football League was under threat, being forced to cease operations on the first of April 2010. No April Fool, this left the teams needing a division to play their games in. As a result, the British American Football Association Community Leagues were formed, being in place for the start of the 2010 season. Ran under the umbrella of the governing body after which it was named, it chose to rebrand a year later to become the British American Football Association National Leagues, which is the name that it continues to bear today.