Expanding the world’s taste for football is a goal that the NFL has set for itself and for this there is no better showcase than the Olympic Games , which is why, in partnership with the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), it has launch a strategy that allows flag football to be in the Los Angeles 2028 edition .At the beginning of 2021, the NFL made official its support for women’s flag football to be included as an official 해외축구중계 and at a national level within the competition programs of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) , which is the second most relevant body within of college athletics in America, it ranks only below the NCAA
The goal of the league is that this form of American football
Become popular and fully developed in the American Union. Although now it will also look for this growth to be achieve worldwide.
According to a report by the Reuters news agency, “The NFL is putting all its muscle and capital behind an effort to get flag football sports onto the program for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics . “American Flag Football League (AFFL) founder Jeff Lewis states that “when it comes to football sports , nothing happens without the involvement or approval of the NFL and that will be the case with efforts to ensure the game is present in the 2028 Summer Games list.
“In everything related to football, at the end of the day, the biggest driving force at some level ends up being the NFL,” Lewis told Reuters in an interview.
This sport is play at a professional level in several countries,
In addition to being for recreational and student use in basic education programs, as is the case in Mexico through agreements sign between the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) and the NFL .
Flag football is a modality in which there is no physical contact and to end a play the player must remove a ribbon that hangs from his waist. The game is play by women and men, in addition to the mix modality. This is a discipline that will be present in the program of the XI World Games that will take place next year in Birmingham, Alabama.
The IFAF report this Wednesday that it will formally launch the intention to take the game to the summer fair before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) but, as with most things Olympic, the heavy lifting will be do in direct meetings with the leaders of the organization.
“To be clear, we definitely support IFAF and USA Football’s pursuit of flag football as an Olympic sport,” NFL International COO Damani Leech told Reuters.
The NFL director stated that “IFAF is going to promote it.
What we have told them is to tell us how we can support. We are willing to do that and help in terms of influence and alignment and bring people together to make it happen” .The IFAF , which is pushing a five-vs-five version of the small-field game for the Olympics, currently has 72 member countries, all with involvement in the sport and nearly 70% of them with fully organized leagues .
The United States tops the IFAF world rankings in all categories, but the top 10 includes some interesting countries and markets such as Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico.
“With the right support and the right positioning,
I’m very hopeful of getting there, of being able to realize the Olympic dream for American football,” IFAF President Richard Maclean said recently.
The possibilities of having flag football sports as an Olympic sport do not seem so distant, since being in the World Games is an almost obligatory step and this will be fulfilled in the next edition of said fair. Also, as with those games, now with the new IOC rules , the host cities of the Olympic Games can select a limited number of sports and propose their inclusion if they are popular in that country and add to the appeal of the Games. In Tokyo, surfing , skateboarding, sport climbing and karate will make their Olympic debuts , while softball and baseball return for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.
Surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing will return for the 2024 Paris Olympics along with breakdancing.
With surfing and skateboarding almost certainly making the 2028 Los Angeles slate , the lobbying for the remaining spots is sure to be intense. But the support of the NFL opens a huge door to get one of those sites assign to flag football.
