Now it is time for two clubs of Japan and Germany to open up a new chapter in the history of worldwide American Football. Japan's X League and Germany's GFL undisputedly are the two most-profiled American Football leagues outside of North America. While both federations share the goal of globalizing American Football and in that respect are two of the most active members of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), often uniting in initiatives to enhance international play (both federations have successfully staged World Cups in 2003 and 2007 respectively), athletes and fans in both countries enjoy a friendly rivalry about which of the two leagues features the higher level of playing skills.
The Dresden Monarchs are member of the German Football League since 2003 and have reached the play-offs in all but two of their nine GFL seasons. The team is coached by American Gary Spielbuehler, who will enter his 4th season with the Monarchs in 2012. After an injury-plagued season in 2011 the Monarchs again will enter the 2012 season as one of the top play-off prospects in the Northern division of the GFL. If they are spared from injuries of that abnormal extent they suffered last year, the Monarchs might turn out as one of the top favorites for winning the German National Championship in 2012, as the core of their team remains intact and they already have added some very profiled players from Germany and other European countries to their roster.
The Dresden Monarchs from Saxony currently are the only GFL team from Eastern Germany, which in 1990 was re-unified with the Western parts of the country. Accordingly the Monarchs are one of the younger clubs in the GFL, founded in 1992, as until 1989 American Football was prohibited in Dresden and the former GDR. The Monarchs are celebrating their 20th anniversary with that special game against the Obic Seagulls and - as some of their GFL games in the last two seasons - will play it at Dresden's most modern stadium. „glücksgas stadion“ has a capacity of 32,066 seats and was newly erected in 2009, with building costs totalling 46 million euros. The playing field features natural grass, and the stadium is also home to Dresden's most profiled soccer team Dynamo.
GFL league games and especially the national final German Bowl in recent years are played in the respective city's prime sporting arenas more frequently, in part due to the Monarchs organization serving as one of the trendsetters. The GFL was founded in 1979 as a six-team „Bundesliga“ and in 1999 was renamed as the German Football League. The league is the oldest American Football league in Europe and currently comprises 16 teams: eight teams each in a Northern and a Southern division. Reigning champions are the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns who in October 2011 defeated their predecessor Kiel Baltic Hurricanes in German Bowl XXXII at Magdeburg. The GFL is supplemented by a second national division GFL 2, which also is comprised of 16 teams divided into a Northern and Southern division. In total, about 250 tackle teams participate in league play in Germany, the German federation AFVD with more than 40,000 individual members is by far the largest American Football federation in Europe. Roughly every second person engaged into American Football within Europe stems from Germany. With 18,000 players Germany according to a recent IFAF survey is the world's most active nation regarding male senior tackle football behind the U.S. slightly ahead of Japan. AFVD also oversees activities in junior and youth football, flag football, women's football, Australian Rules football and cheerleading in Germany and is a member of „Deutscher Olympischer Sport-Bund“, Germany's National Olympic Committee and governing body of sports. GFL clubs seven times have won the Eurobowl, the champions league of European American Football. The national team won two European Championships (recently in 2010), one World Games gold medal in 2005 and finished third in the World Cups of 2003 and 2007.
The Obic Seagulls were established in 1983 and are member of X League. The team from Narashino city in Chiba prefecture has won six X League Championships in 1996, 1998, 2002, 2005, 2010 and 2011 and won the National Championship of Japan four times in 1996, 1998, 2005, and 2010. On January 3, 2012, the Seagulls again are playing for the National Championship in the Rice Bowl. 13 players from the Obic Seagulls played for the Japanese national team at the 4th World Championships 2011 in Austria. One of them, Noriaki Kinoshita, was member of the international practice squad of the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL, before he joined the Seagulls for the 2011 season.
The X League is the top level American Football league in Japan and consists of 18 teams separated to three regional divisions. The season usually runs from September to December, the championship game, called Japan X Bowl, is held in mid-December. The 25th Japan X Bowl was held on December 19, 2011, at Tokyo Dome and featured an attendance of 19,864. Annually the winner of Japan X Bowl plays the college league national champion at the Japanese National Championship game, called Rice Bowl, in the first week of the new year.
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