(abbreviation, alt-of, historical, initialism, qualifier:Australian rules football) Initialism of Victorian Football League, an Australian rules football league formed in Victoria, Australia, in 1896; renamed the Australian Football League (AFL) in 1990 after expansion to other states starting in the 1980s.
The professional Victorian Football League (VFL) matches attracted more than 100000 spectators weekly from 1939 until 1941. In 1942, however, the VFL lost half of its football fields to ancillary and military services. 2009, Kate Darian-Smith, On the Home Front: Melbourne in Wartime: 1939-1945, page 164:
The VFL began with eight clubs: Carlton; Collingwood; Essendon; Fitzroy; Geelong; Melbourne; St Kilda; and South Melbourne. 2006, Ross Booth, “58: The economic development of the Australian Football League”, in Wladimir Andreff, Stefan Szymański, editors, Handbook on Economics of Sport, page 553:
(abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, qualifier:Australian rules football) Initialism of Victorian Football League; a second-tier regional (country area) Australian rules football league operating within Victoria; derived from the historic Victorian Football Association, from which the future AFL broke in 1896.