The Coburg Football Club recently launched an International Partner Club program which encourages teams that play Australian Rules Football overseas to partner with our club in conjunction with the selling of the newly created Lions Abroad membership.
Benefits for each partner club include, social media exposure, travelling player notifications, old apparel and merchandise exchange and more.
We are today proud to welcome the third official International Partner Club –the French based Lyon Lions, who join the United Kingdom’s North London Lions & the Switzerland based Winterthur Lions as part of our program.
In 2013, after spending one year in Australia, Charles Bernigaud (current coach) started the Lyon Lions along with Bruno Lalanne and Pedr Chapman (an Australian who was living in Lyon).
After only 3 months of marketing, they already had enough players to play their first friendly game against the French club of Strasbourg, which Lyon won.
The team then joined the French championship which already comprised of 7 other teams based in France.
Between 2013 and 2017, the Lyon Lions has as times found it hard to recruit players and generate interest in Australian Rules Football.
But thanks to a great recruitment drive, some experience from the older lads and a lot of motivation they won the championship 2017 with a huge victory against Paris.
This result gave Lyon a ticket for the Champions league in Amsterdam where all the best European clubs competed in a round robin tournament. Lyon finished in 6thposition after losing against the champions, the London Wildcats.
Lyon has had players represent the French International team at the international International Cup in Australia. They also play a memorial game organized every years against a team made of expat Australians to celebrate the Anzac day in April.
In 2018, Lyon participated in the 2018 Lions Cup in Denmark which comprised European teams that have the nickname Lions.
Today, the club is motivated to win the French title whilst also continue to grow the game of Australian Rules Football in France and Europe.
To find out more about the Lyon Lions, please click here to view their facebook page, or here to view more information on the partnership between the two.
For more information about our Lions Abroad Membership, please click here: www.coburgfc.com.au/lions-abroad-membership/
