Australian Football International Cup
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Most recent season or competition: 2014 Australian Football International Cup |
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| Sport | Australian rules football |
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| Inaugural season | 2002 |
| No. of teams | 2014: 18 men's, 7 women's |
| Most recent champion(s) |
Men's: Papua New Guinea (2nd title)Women's:  Canada Northern Lights (1st title) |
| Most titles | Men's: Ireland (2 titles) Papua New Guinea (2 titles)Women's: Ireland (1 title) Canada (1 title) |
| Official website | [1] |
PNG celebrating their 2008 Australian Football International Cup victory
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| Tournaments | |
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The Australian Football International Cup (also known as the AFL International Cup) is an international sport competition in Australian rules football. It is currently co-ordinated by the Australian Football League's game development arm and run every 3 years since 2002.
The tournament is the largest international Australian rules football event and the only one that is open to worldwide senior competition; although Australia, the home and world's strongest nation in the game, does not participate as it would most likely dominate the competition.
The inaugural tournament was the 2002 Australian Football International Cup run by the International Australian Football Council under the auspices of the Australian Football League, which then assumed full control with the winding up of the IAFC.
The Cup was originally for male participants only, but in 2011 a women's competition was established. After some suggestions the tournament would be run every 4 years, the AFL is currently maintaining the 3-year cycle.
The grand final of each men's tournament has been held as a curtain raiser to a home-and-away match of the AFL premiership season.
Australia is not represented in the men's tournament; as the only nation where the sport is played professionally, the difference in skill level between an Australian national team and the nearest competitor is currently far too large for any contest to be worthwhile. As such, the tournament is geared towards development of the sport outside Australia and expatriate Australians may not compete, with the exception of the women's OzIM team, where only indigenous and multicultural Australians are able to enter.
Currently there are efforts to help raise the event's profile by broadcasting the 2017 International Cup on SBS, an organisation devoted to multicultural, multi-lingual entertainment.
When the International Australian Football Council was formed in 1995 one of its aims was to 'establish and promote an official World Cup of Australian Football'. At the time it was thought that 2008, being the 150th anniversary of the game, was the appropriate date.
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