Airy Cleere starring for Guernsey

At the continent's 'county grounds' in Maastricht, Guernsey's footballers represent Europe against Carlow's Fenagh in their first foray intoLeinster club action in the junior competition.

It has taken 18 months of planning and Saturday's match represents a milestone on the road that saw Europe start with just four clubs back in 1999.

On the continent they usually play 11-a-side, not necessarily due to a lack of numbers but because they normally borrow pitches from codes with smaller dimensions such as soccer and rugby, where 15-a-side games just aren't practical.

The GAA is increasingly looking at a bigger, more global picture. This year they looked beyond national borders for a solution to help Kilkenny's footballers and organised for them to play in the British championship.

Later this month, Donal Og Cusack's Super Hurling 11s will play an exhibition at half-time in one of the biggest American football matches in the USA in order to bring the game to a wider audience.

Dropping hurling into the lap of one of America's most significant institutions, they argue, might help tap into a diaspora of an estimated 40 million as well as the live crowd of more than 80,000.

GAA director general Paraic Duffy recently sounded the Association's determination to bring games to a wider audience when the next TV rights deals are announced. And Europe seems like fertile ground.

Gaelic games have taken strong roots on the continent – particularly in regions such as Brittany in France and Galicia in Spain, which have strong cultural links with Ireland.

Liffre in Brittany boasts a team made up of entirely French nationals and are coached by a PE teacher who has completed the various coaching badges with Leinster.

"It's like a drug for these guys," said Europe PRO Brian Clerkin. "They start playing in their 20s and they want more and more. These guys know who Gooch and Bernard Brogan are and they go over to Ireland to watch them play. It's starting a sort of GAA tourism."

In fact, European GAA officials now say there are more non-Irish than Irish playing Gaelic games on the continent, providing a solid platform for the progress of clubs.