Netherlands
Home	Away
Association	AFBN
Region	Europe (IFAF Europe)
Founded	1987
IFAF affiliation
Colors	Orange,black,white
Head coach	Fred Armstrong
Team manager	vacant

Netherlands national American football team

Medal record
American football
Representing Netherlands
	1991 Finland	European Championship
	2012 Austria/Switzerland	European C Group Championship
	2016 United Kingdom	European Championship Qualifying Tournament

TheDutch Lions is theDutch nationalAmerican Football team. The team represents theNetherlands in international competition and is made up entirely ofDutch national players, typically but not exclusively playing in theAFBN andGFL competitions.

The Lions first competed internationally in 1986. After failing to progress further than the first qualification round in 1987 (inFinland) and 1989 (inGermany), they achieved a 3rd-place finish in the 1991 European Championship in Finland. After failing to qualify for the tournament in 1993, combined with upheaval at home within the Dutch governing bodies, the Dutch national team had a long absence from international competition.

Nine years after their previous incarnation, the Dutch returned to the international American Football scene in 2002 under the name Dutch Lions, finishing 5th in the 2003EFAF C Group European Championship inDenmark after losses toRussia andItaly. Two more losses, this time toSwitzerland andNorway in the 2007EFAF C Group European Championship, led to another 5th place. Five years later, under new head coach Winston Ronde, the Lions improved on those results by finishing 3rd in the 2012EFAF C Group Championship, this time inAustria, with a close loss toSerbia and a win over Russia.

In 2013 and 2014, the Lions played a series of practice games againstPoland,Belgium,Czech Republic andCatalonia, losing only the game against Czech Republic inPrague. In 2015, head coach Winston Ronde resigned, and was replaced by Reyhan Agaoglu. After an away loss in a practice game against Switzerland, the Dutch Lions succeeded in qualifying for the 2016 European Championship Qualifying Tournament by defeating rivals Belgium inWaalwijk.

The Lions played host toIreland in their first ever international practice game, again in Waalwijk, in 2016 as a warm up to the then-upcoming tournament in theUnited Kingdom. The Lions were comfortably ahead 20-0 when the game was abandoned early in the third quarter due to lightning.

In September 2016 the Dutch Lions travelled toWorcester, United Kingdom to compete in the qualifying tournament for the 2018 European Championship. Despite leading 13-0 at half time, an injury to quarterback Richard Bouthoorn contributed to a 20-13 loss in the semi-final, thereby ending the dreams of competing in the 2018 finals. TheNetherlands bounced back in the bronze medal game to defeat Russia 17-6. The Lions ended the 2016 season by taking a makeshift squad to face Poland inLublin in an exhibition game, losing 42-14.

In August 2017,American Football Bond Nederland made a decision to put the Dutch Lions programme on hold until 2018. After the resignation of head coach Reyhan Agaoglu, the federation chose Fred Armstrong as a new head coach following the summer break in the same year.^[1]

The Dutch Lions have never qualified for theIFAF World Championship.

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Competition	Result
2 November 1986	Great Britain	Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, GB	6–9	EFAF European Championship qualifier	Loss[2]
16 November 1986	Great Britain	"The Queen's own" Field, Soesterberg, NL	5–24	EFAF European Championship qualifier	Loss[2]
16 August 1991	Great Britain	Unknown Stadium, Finland	3–49	EFAF European Championship semi-final	Loss[3]
1991	France	Unknown Stadium, Finland	17–12	EFAF European Championship 3rd place	Win[4]
29 October 2002	GERManiacs (German Universities)	The Hague, Netherlands	19–18	Exhibition match	Win[5]
29 July 2003	Russia	Glostrup Stadion, Denmark	10–28	EFAF C Group Championship	Loss[6]
31 July 2003	Italy	Glostrup Stadion, Denmark	21–63	EFAF C Group Championship	Loss[7]
14 August 2007	Switzerland	Sportstadion Wolfsberg, Austria	08–40	EFAF C Group Championship	Loss[8]
16 August 2007	Norway	Sportstadion Wolfsberg, Austria	00–27	EFAF C Group Championship	Loss[9]
15 September 2012	Serbia	Gründenmoos Stadium, St. Gallen, Switzerland	14–21	EFAF C Group Championship	Loss[10]
17 September 2012	Russia	Stadion Herrenried, Hohenems, Austria	17–15	EFAF C Group Championship	Win[11]
14 September 2013	Poland	Stadion Polonii, Warsaw, Poland	37–14	Exhibition match	Win[12]
19 July 2014	Belgium	Sportpark de Schorre, Ostend, Belgium	38–13	Exhibition match	Win[13]
6 September 2014	Czech Republic	Slavia Prague Athletic Stadium, Prague, Czech Republic	6–12	Exhibition match	Loss[14]
18 October 2014	Catalonia	Estadi del GEiEG, Girona, Spain	36–26	Exhibition match	Win[15]
19 September 2015	Switzerland	Lachenstadion, Thun, Switzerland	0–12	Exhibition match	Loss[16]
24 October 2015	Belgium	Mandemakers Stadion, Waalwijk, Netherlands	17–3	IFAF B-Group Qualification Match	Win[17]
27 August 2016	Ireland	Mandemakers Stadion, Waalwijk, Netherlands	20-0	Exhibition match	Win[18]
16 September 2016	Czech Republic	Sixways Stadium, Worcester, United Kingdom	13-20	IFAF Euro qualification Tournament Semi-Final	Loss[19]
18 September 2016	Russia	Sixways Stadium, Worcester, United Kingdom	17–6	IFAF Euro Qualification Tournament Third Place Game	Win[20]
8 October 2016	Poland	Arena Lublin, Lublin, Poland	42–14	Exhibition match	Loss[21]
10 November 2018	Belgium	Shotgun field,Beringen,Belgium	14–7	Exhibition match	Loss[22]

• List of American football teams in the Netherlands

• Dutch national American Football team official website
• American Football Bond Nederland website

• Men's national American football teams
• Men's national sports teams of the Netherlands
• American football teams in the Netherlands
• 1987 establishments in the Netherlands
• American football teams established in 1987
• National sports teams established in 1987

• CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list
• CS1 maint: archived copy as title
• Articles with short description
• Short description with empty Wikidata description
• Use dmy dates from July 2015