Fourteen football players boarded a plane and flew from Israel to Amsterdam in the middle of July for the Australian Football League’s European tournament. When news of Israel’s participation in the tournament triggered threats of protests, Australian Football League Europe did not capitulate to political pressure.
It is the role of the Australian Football League Europe “to facilitate football tournaments and to support growth and development around football,” Jay Treloar, general manager of AFL Europe, told The Daily Signal.
It “wasn’t our place to make a political statement,” Treloar continued. “It wasn’t our place to ban someone for something that fell outside of … [our] governance.”
The Euro Cup, an annual one-day tournament, brought 15 men’s teams to the Netherlands this year. Australian football, or Aussie rules football, is a full-contact sport that combines elements of rugby, soccer, and American football. The sport was first created in the 1800s in Australia but has recently grown in popularity in Europe.
In light of international tensions surrounding the war between Israel and Hamas, and following antisemitic attacks in Amsterdam in the fall of 2024, Treloar said protests were expected over Israel’s participation in the Australian Football League’s European tournament. But the night before the Euro Cup, Treloar got a call informing him that protest threats had increased, and authorities in Amsterdam were expecting a potential mass protest at the sporting event.
“What I was super impressed with was the reaction of the local private security firm that we were engaged with, plus the local police and municipality, and everyone was essentially all working toward the same result which was that the football tournament was to go ahead with Israel participating,” Treloar said.
The tournament continued and the protesters were kept outside the sports complex, with the exception of one protester who managed to get into the sports complex but was quickly removed, according to the captain of the Israeli sports team.
“The AFL Europe has been 100% supportive of us,” Shir Shalev, captain and team manager of the Israeli Australian Football League team, told The Daily Signal, adding that the league worked hard to ensure Israel could participate in the tournament and do so safely.
The experience Shalev, 29, and his Israeli team had in Europe is very different from the experience the Israeli youth Ultimate Frisbee team had in Belgium last year.
In August 2024, an Israeli ultimate Frisbee team arrived in Belgium for the European Youth Ultimate Championship only for the European Ultimate Federation, which was hosting the tournament, to tell them they were not allowed to compete due to the threat of pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Shalev expressed gratitude to AFL Europe, AFL headquarters in Australia, and AFL Netherlands, the hosting body, for their support and resolve to ensure Israel was able to compete and do so safely.
The Israeli AFL team had their best performance to date, finishing fifth in the tournament, only losing to Ireland, who took home the championship for the third year in a row.
The 2025 Euro Cup was “definitely something special,” Shalev said.
The fact that the Israeli team was dealing with the threat of protests amid what is already an intense physical competition but was still able to “lock in” and “do the things we love so much,” the captain said made for a very “emotional” tournament.
