Interview: Europlayers' Own - Anthony [Founder & Owner]

Europlayers was started back in 2000. A friend of mine who used to play American football a few years before told me that he would have liked playing in other countries. At the time, most European teams didn’t have a website so it was very difficult to find them let alone contact them (when they had a website it was usually in their own language and Google Translate didn’t exist yet). It was also difficult to know if they were looking for players.

I thought that an online database of players and European teams could be useful so I started working on europlayers.net (which became europlayers.com a couple of years later). From day one I decided that players and teams should be able to contact each other directly with no middle men involved in the process (including Europlayers).

There are now about 20,000 active members in total. Of course Europlayers is not just about American Football. We also do Basketball, Ice Hockey, Handball, Volleyball, etc. but in terms of American Football we currently have about 14,000 registered players and 1,200 teams. Members who don’t use the website anymore are automatically deleted (we first email them to let them know) as it’s not fair on the other members to spend time contacting someone who will never reply back.

We currently have about 500 new members every month (including players, coaches and teams). Eg. list of American Football players registered in the past 4 weeks: http://www.europlayers.com/SearchPlayer.aspx?FormType=3&ProfileCreatedSince=LastMonth

As we don’t advertise anywhere the majority of them come to Europlayers following the recommendation of a friend.

Some players or coaches have been on Europlayers since the first year like Todd Hendricks for example.

The design of the site has changed a few times and was last redone completely in 2010. Most (if not all) of the current functionalities have been developed based on the suggestions of members. After all they are the users of the website so they know which features they need. Some examples of features added recently and suggested by members: message editing (to edit a message after it has been sent as long as the recipient hasn’t read it yet), message filtering (to get the list of messages not read or not replied to yet), “no message” feature (to only allow some people to contact you; this is typically used by teams who are not looking for players anymore and therefore don’t want to be contacted), Hudl films on the players’ profile, “advanced search” with more filters, etc.

We promote the combines organized by EUROstopwatch in the US. The stats of the players (10/20/40 Yard Dash, Broad Jump, NFL Shuttle, etc) are then uploaded on their profile on Europlayers. This way teams know that the stats have been verified. EUROstopwatch has also started doing some combines in Europe. There was one near Paris in France (hosted by the Diables Rouges) last month and they’re planning to organize some more next year in, hopefully, multiple European countries. In fact we’re inviting any teams who want to host a combine (they basically need access to the field and to the changing rooms) to come forward! For the exact details they just need to Contact us.

It’s always a tricky situation when a player complains about a team or vice-versa because, at the end of the day, it’s the player’s words against the team’s. If something serious happened we feel it’s our duty to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else so we try to be as objective as possible and we ask both parties to be as specific as they can about what went wrong and we ask them to prove it to some extent. Thankfully it doesn’t happen very often. The most recent case was the bad experience that Ben Jones had in Brazil just a few weeks ago while playing for the Steamrollers.

We’re also working on a template that players and teams should go through before signing a contract to make sure nothing has been forgotten. I have a few cases in mind when a player was expecting some benefits (something as basic as a mean of transport, internet access in the flat/apartment, etc.) but didn’t get it not because the team didn’t want to but simply because it hadn’t been discussed between them before signing the contract and therefore wasn’t provided by the team. Nothing should be implied but it’s easy to forget to discuss certain things so a template should solve most of those issues. It will be on Europlayers soon for anyone to download.

We regularly have scammers registering on Europlayers pretending to represent teams in Europe or sometimes even in Australia. In reality they’re based in Nigeria. This is a very sad thing as they try to take advantage of the players. We now have an automatic system in place to detect them but from time to time some manage to get through.

The main thing to keep in mind is that players (or coaches) should never have to send any money to anyone to be signed with a team. No exception! If someone on Europlayers (or through another site like Facebook) asks a player to send them money (regardless of the reason: visa, administrative fees, etc.) then it is very suspicious and they should let us know immediately so that we can warn other members.

Recently a scammer tried to be clever and didn’t explicitly ask for money but told the players that they had to buy their own flight tickets which would be reimbursed on arrival. The trick was that the flight tickets had to be bought through their “air-travel agent”. To do so, the player was asked to send the money to the “agent”. Of course, once the money was sent the player would never hear anything back.

In another case, a scammer even created a fake website which looked exactly like the website of a real team (based in the UK). The only difference between the 2 sites was the email address to contact the “team manager”. Anyone visiting the fake website would have thought it was the real one.

Players should also do their own research. If they have a doubt they should ask for the contact details of former imports so that they can call them but be careful: when you talk to someone on Skype or call someone on their mobile/cell phone you can never be sure where they are. It’s easy to buy a European/US/Canadian sim card and use it from another continent to receive or make phone calls. The safest way is to ask for a landline number.

So to reiterate and to keep it simple: to be signed with a team, players and coaches should never send any money to anyone (regardless of the reason) or buy anything (even if they’re told they will be reimbursed). If in doubt they can of course contact Europlayers and we will confirm if a team is real or not.

“Popular” is a very subjective word so to stay objective I’ve checked the database and here is the list of the 5 “most viewed” profiles (in the past 3 months):

Players (click on the name to view their profiles):

Teams (click on the name to view their profiles):

Having said that this “popularity” probably reflects the activity on Europlayers of those members. The more a player is online on Europlayers contacting other members, the more likely his profile will be viewed. Same for the teams.

A little secret: the website was not fully automated when it was first launched in 2000. When a new member registered I had to update the database manually (in fact the “database” was just some text files on my own computer). This was very time consuming but thankfully not many people registered at the very beginning which gave me time to fully automate the website.

Most players think that once they are registered on Europlayers, teams will fight to get them on their roster. It’s just the contrary! They need to realise that looking for a team is like looking for a job so the process should be the same. When they look for a job they send their resume to the companies they are interested in. 

It's the same with the teams: their profile on Europlayers is the equivalent of their resume so they have to make sure it is completed properly with pictures, films, biography, experience, etc Once done they need to be proactive and start contacting teams (just once though! No point in sending 50 messages to the same team until they reply…. as some do!). To make sure players understand how the process of finding a team works we now contact every new member after they register to explain it to them.

A few tips to players:

- Get a passport! This may seem obvious but too many players miss opportunities to play, even for half a season, because their passports are not ready in time. Also, if a North American player has a parent who was born in a European country, they may be able to obtain an EU passport. This makes it much easier to play in Europe. Check with your local embassy or consulate for that country.

- You wouldn't apply for a job in a company if you didn't know anything about them. It's the same with a team. Make sure you do your homework before contacting them: where they are located, which country, when their season start, which level, etc.

- European teams need good players to win their championship but also to improve the level of the local players. If you can do that for them (and explain it clearly when you contact them) then it's a good first step.

-Be professional when you send a message. If you were looking for a job you would not send a message like this to your future employer: 'im rdy to be ur star player! chck me out!'. [Mia, I took this from your site] It's the same with the teams.

- Ask your coach (or a former one) to write a (honest) report about yourself. Coach reports are used by European teams to assess players during the hiring process. Simply tell your coach to go to your profile on Europlayers and to click on the 'Coach Report' link at the top.

- Stay in touch with other players. Many of them are excellent sources of information.

- Be reactive: check your messages on Europlayers regularly. If you take too long to reply to a message, the sender will think you're not serious about the game.

- Finally, be reasonable about your expectations. The income can vary from country to country and team to team. However, most teams provide airfare, housing, local transportation, reasonable monthly expenses and meals. This can add up to a decent income.

This video is a summary of the above. It was made by Dom Kegel who played for the Crocodiles in Finland last year.

Tips to teams: to get the list of players still looking for a team, with good feedback, with European experience (or not), with a film on their profile and with coaching experience, they should make use of the “Advanced Search” page of Europlayers.

Of course teams still need to do their own research, watch the films, double-check the stats, contact the players they’re potentially interested in, discuss with them, etc.

Mia Bajin