Exclusive-Football-IFAF expands flag championships to Africa ahead of LA28

By Amy Tennery and Rory Carroll

NEW YORK (Reuters) -IFAF will hold its first African Flag Football Championships in June, executives have told Reuters, expanding the continental championships at a critical moment ahead of the sport's Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The competition from June 20-21 in Cairo, Egypt, joins existing events in the Americas, Europe and Asia Oceania, as the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) and the NFL look to build the sport's reputation as a global phenomenon.

The competition will operate as a pathway to qualification for the 2026 IFAF Flag Football World Championships.

"As a sport, you can't say you are a global sport and you exclude Africa. It's impossible," said NFL Africa Lead Osi Umenyiora, a British Nigerian former defensive end who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants.

"That's what, in conjunction with IFAF, we're really trying to build here: A truly global sport."

IFAF President Pierre Trochet said the championships would create opportunities for new players as the sport is determined not to become a "one-and-done" Olympic entrant.

"LA is the beginning of the story for us and a commitment that is shared with IFAF and the entire team of the NFL to look for a future edition - '32 and beyond - and it's just as a result that those continental competitions are growing so fast," said Trochet.

"It's a consequence of our common goal to stay in the Olympic programme on the long term."

CLEARER PATHWAY

The NFL has ramped up its promotion of flag football since the sport was announced as part of the Los Angeles 2028 programme, with the non-contact format that emphasises speed and agility offering a clearer pathway for women to compete.

Played without the expensive helmets and pads used in gridiron football, some also see the sport as more accessible to newcomers, with a lower chance of injury than in the bone-crunching world of the tackle game.

The NFL will co-host youth football development events in conjunction with the championships, expanding the NFL Africa programme to Egypt for the first time, as the U.S. league continues its push toward internationalisation.

Umenyiora, who moved to the United States when he was 15, got his start in flag and touch football and said the sport once seen as the sole domain of North America was quickly knocking down those barriers.

"(You) add in the Olympics. You add in the national team. You add in the IFAF competitions, the continental competitions that are going to be taking place hopefully for us on a yearly basis, and I think the idea of the NFL globally is not that far-fetched," he said.

The league announced ahead of the Super Bowl that it would play its first-ever regular season games in Dublin and Australia in 2025 and 2026, respectively, and last month said it was exploring the possibility of a game in the United Arab Emirates.

In the 2023 season, 88 foreign-born players participated in at least one regular-season game, with Nigeria accounting for the second-largest group of international players behind Canada.

With 12 teams - six men's and six women's - expected in Los Angeles, Trochet said each continent will have "an equal chance to access the qualification pathway.

"If an African team is fortunate enough to get in in 28, one is going to win," said Umenyiora.

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Ken Ferris)