Australian rules football in France

Australian rules football in France is played in both league and cup based formats by nine clubs based in Paris, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Perpignan, Toulouse, Lyon, Montpellier and Cergy. The Commission Nationale de Football Australien (CNFA) is the official governing body for Australian Football in France. There have been a number of other short-lived clubs in the country in the past and the so the CNFA has created a developmental league consisting of an additional four teams based in Brittany, Pau, Saint Nazaire and Marseille who compete in cup tournaments with a view to increasing participation in the sport in France and to eventually compete in the National Championship. There are four tournaments held annually, the national league known as the French National Championship ("Championnat National") and three cup competitions; the French Cup ("Coupe de France"), North Cup ("Coupe du Nord") and South Cup ("Coupe du Sud").

Australian rules football was played by Australian armed forces at Poperinge in 1916. A match was also recorded as being played in Le Havre.

Australian football was first shown in France on Canal+ television in the 1980s. Aussie Rules had been played sporadically in the 1990s by clubs in Paris and Normandy, with the formation of the first club, Houquetot in Normandy. With the support of the Australian embassy, the club became the Montivilliers in 1998 and was nicknamed "Tasmania" in reference to the Australian state. The first game was played against Australians in 1998, but the club disappeared the following year.

it wasn't until 2003-04 when the first stable teams began to appear, the first two being the primarily Australian-expat based Paris Cockerels and the mainly French Strasbourg Kangaroos. The first footy match on record between two 100% French teams was played in Strasbourg on 3 December 2005, with the hometown Kangaroos defeating the Senlis Razorbacks 91-17.

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