Zürcher Verband AFL

In May 2017, Stefan Burgener (Half Swiss-Half Australian) and his Brother started training with a group of Swiss mates in a public park in Winterthur. They trained every Tuesday until October, when we competed as the Swiss national team in the yearly 9-a-side European Championships (Euro Cup) of Australian Rules Football.

After almost 12 months of training and teaching the finer points of the game to locals, in February 2018, they officially founded the Winterthur Lions Australian Football Club. Since then, they have competed in two tournaments across Europe, notching up their first win in Prague on the 1st September against the North West Italy Eagles (6.4 40 – 2.0 12).

On the 1st of September 2019, the Zurich Giants Australian Football Club was born. The fourth club to join AFL Switzerland, the Zurich Giants were founded after the inaugural season of the league in Switzerland. Many of our players have already played for another club in the Swiss league in 2019 and will now proudly put on the new Zurich Giants jumpers for the 2020 season.

Since our earliest days, we have trained regularly and acquired new players through our hard recruitment work. We currently have players from diverse nations, including Switzerland, Australia, Hungary, Spain, America and even Liechtenstein. Our team is mixed with female as well as male players of all ages. Even kids train from time to time with us; the Giants welcome everyone. Besides the sports side of our club, we organise social events for building rapport and getting to know each other better in order to function better on the field as a team.