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The Principality of Sealand has a surface of approximately one acre. An American Football field is 53 and 1/3 yards wide by 120 yards long (including endzones), which works out about 1.32 acres, so home games would be difficult but not impossible...
With that in mind, all of our games so far have had to be away matches to Dublin, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Reykjavik, Coleraine and, this coming weekend, Guadalajara in Spain.
With that in mind, all of our games so far have had to be away matches to Dublin, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Reykjavik, Coleraine and, this coming weekend, Guadalajara in Spain.
I’d be lying if I said it was easy to sort out fixtures. My sales pitch to potential opposition teams has been finely honed. A normal game prep starts about 9-12 months in advance, and once I’ve found an interesting team, I drop them an unsolicited message online and begin by explaining what Sealand is, who the Seahawks are and what we’re all about.
Once they’re convinced, it’s a matter of setting the date, picking a venue and finding out how they want to structure the event. Then we announce to our team that it’s time to dig out their passports.
When we can, we arrange games for more than one of the club’s teams (we have National, Masters and Women’s teams) so we can get the most out of the weekend, share resources and get everyone together to share their love of the sport in one place.
Personally, getting myself to the games is pretty easy- I’ve got it down to a fine art: pack everything in a suitcase, pray it’s under the weight allowance and check my passport at least a hundred times between leaving the house and getting to the airport. I’ve even worked out how to fit most of my kit into my football helmet to save on space.
‘Herding cats’ is the best way to describe the last month leading up to the game, and you discover that getting that many people to another country at the same time is a logistical nightmare: “Where is it? When do I need to be there? What kit do I need? Is it Guadalajara in Spain or Mexico?”
The payoff is worth it, though. We all get together for a training session the day before the game to get everyone in sync after their seasons apart with their own domestic teams, and it’s like no time has passed since we were all last together when everyone picks up from their last conversations.
Just the little matter of the game after that, but as soon as the whistle goes, I completely forget everything that happened beforehand, all the planning and organisation and just get on and do my other job of smashing into people as hard as I can.
I love Football.
Sir Mike Ireland of Sealand
President of the Sealand Seahawks National Football team
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4 thoughts on “Sealand Seahawks: The Journey of Away Games and International Football Passion”
The Principality of Sealand
BARON DANIEL LEE,
We appreciate this creative suggestion! We always welcome new ideas.
Hugh
cool
Baron Daniel Lee
HO SEAHAWKS!!
Dude check this out: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/underwater-villa-maldives
Sealand could totally do this.
Baron George Day
It’s simply amazing how we are all representing Sealand in every sphere of life!