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Flag football is a variant of gridiron football (American football or Canadian football depending on location) where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier ("deflagging") to end a down. In flag football, contact is limited between players. The sport has a strong amateur following with several national and international competitions each year sponsored by various associations but is most popularly played in America where it was invented. The international governing body for the sport is the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) with the International Woman's Flag Football Association (IWFFA) governing the women's game.
 A game of flag football being played at the University of Texas at Austin | |
| Highest governing body | |
|---|---|
| First played | c. 1940 in Fort Meade, Maryland, U.S. |
| Characteristics | |
| Contact | Limited |
| Team members | Two teams of 4-10 |
| Type | |
| Equipment | Ball, flag |
| Venue | Football field |
| Presence | |
| Country or region | Worldwide |
| Olympic | To be first included in 2028 |
| World Games | since 2022 |
Flag football will be a discretionary event for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the first time any gridiron football code has been a full part of an Olympic programme.
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The best available records to date point to the early 1940s during World War II as the sport's starting point.[1][2] The game began as a recreational sport created for American military personnel to help them stay fit but was designed in a way that would help prevent them from becoming injured during wartime. At the time it was called "Touch and Tail football", which then became "flag football" after the war ended.[3]
The first known recorded history of flag football can be traced to Fort Meade, Maryland, USA, which is now generally accepted as the sport's birthplace. The first national flag football organization, the National Touch Football League, was formed in the 1960s in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 1971, the league has had a national championship game.[4]
Arizona teachers Porter Wilson and Norman Adams invented flag-a-tag belts and flags[5][6][7] which are the template for the flags used in the game today.
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The specific rules of flag football vary widely by league, though all share in common their replication of the rules of traditional American football with tackling replaced by flag-pulling.
Traditional American football rules are often eliminated or modified to reflect the more recreational nature of the game, the desire to avoid physical contact and injury, and the generally smaller number of participating players per side.
In a standard game of flag football, the match is played in two halves. Time length is determined by the league being played.[8] The clock only stops for injuries, half-time and timeouts.
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Chiefly, because there is no dominant sanctioning organization for the sport, the game has mutated into many variations: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4 players on each side; coed or single-gender; with kicking and punting and with point-after conversions (including some with 1, 2, and 3 point tries) or without; and field sizes that vary from full Canadian Football League (CFL) size, National Football League (NFL) size (120 yards long by 531⁄3 yards wide), to fields a third that size.
An important distinction is whether linemen are allowed to catch passes ("Eligible Linemen") or, as in the NFL / CFL, are not allowed to do so ("Ineligible Linemen"). Flag (and touch) football may also be divided into "contact" or "non-contact", depending on whether or not blocking is allowed; if allowed, blocking is usually restricted to the chest.[9]
The ability or inability of the quarterback to advance the ball past the line of scrimmage (LOS) by running is another rule subject to variation by the league.
The sport is also played on surfaces other than a traditional grass football field, including on sand beaches; beach flag football has previously featured as a discipline at the Asian Beach Games.[10]
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IFAF Flag Football World Championship
The International Federation of American Footbal (IFAF) organise a biannual IFAF Flag Football World Championship.
Olympics
In July 2022, the National Football League (NFL) and the IFAF partnered on a bid for flag football to be included as an optional event during the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The NFL had sponsored the inclusion of flag football as an invitational event during that month's 2022 World Games—a multi-sport event featuring sports and disciplines not currently contested at the Olympics—in Birmingham, Alabama. The men's tournament was won by the United States, and the women's tournament by Mexico.[11][12] The NFL's executive VP of football operations Troy Vincent stated that the sport was "the future of American football", as it was inclusive and had fewer barriers to access.[13]
In August 2022, flag football was shortlisted as one of nine sports advancing to the next phase of the bid process.[14] On October 9, 2023, the LA organizing committee officially proposed the inclusion of flag football as an event.[15][16][17][18] On October 16, 2023, flag football and the organizing committee's other proposals for temporary events were approved at the 141st IOC Session.[19][20]
World Games
The 2022 World Games marked the 40th anniversary of the event, which took place from July 7–17, 2022. Hosted at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, Flag Football featured eight men's teams and eight women's teams from around the world. In 2021 the World Games uploaded a beginner's guide to World Games Flag Football.[21]
As the reigning world champions,[22] the United States men's and women's teams both pre-qualified for the 2022 World Games. The remaining seven teams were selected through the IFAF qualifying process[12]
International Flag Football Festival
The International Flag Football Festival (IFFF) organizes the World Cup of Flag Football featuring teams from the United States, Mexico and several other nations.[citation needed]
Kelly McGillis Classic
The Kelly McGillis Classic is a women's tournament organised by the IWFFA held each February in Key West, Florida[23] where over 90 women and girls teams participate in 8-on-8, semi-blocking contact flag football.
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USA Football
USA Football is the governing body of American football in the United States, the sole US member of the International Federation of American Football,[24] and a recognized sports organization of the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee.[25] Its non-profit mission includes designing and delivering premier educational, development, and competitive programs for American football, including tackle and flag football. USA Football is the only organization that selects and organizes the U.S. national team (men's and women's) in federation-sanctioned international competition.[26]
USA Flag
USA Flag currently operates the largest National Championships flag football tournament in the United States, along with a club World Championships every January in Florida that eclipsed over 980 teams this past January 2023, the largest single weekend flag football tournament ever recorded. The USA Flag has grown exponentially each year.
NFL Flag
The National Football League and its teams have promoted and sponsored flag football leagues in the United States as a youth sport under the branding NFL Flag; in 2020, Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson became a chairman and co-owner of NFL Flag, as part of efforts by the NFL to expand its promotion of the sport into other territories. The program has also placed a particular focus on expanding women's flag football, due to gridiron football having predominantly been played by men.[27][28]
In 2023, as part of a retooling of the Pro Bowl—the NFL's all-star event—into a series of skills competitions, culminating with three flag football games as the final events.[29] In 2023 and 2024, NFL Flag also hosted its world championships as part of the Pro Bowl festivities.[30][31]
American Flag Football League
The American Flag Football League (AFFL) is a flag football organization that offers youth and women's competition, and in 2023, a men's professional division.[citation needed]
Varsity flag football
In May 2020, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), in partnership with the NFL, announced the addition of flag football as a varsity sport for female student-athletes.[32] The NAIA became the first collegiate governing body to sanction the sport at the varsity level. NAIA women's flag football began during the 2020–21 season as an emerging sport with at least 15 teams, and the NAIA and NFL also expected an upgrade of the sport to an invitational level sport by 2022 with at least 25 teams.[33]
In May 2022, the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) announced that it would sponsor flag football as an emerging women's sport, starting in 2023.[34][35]
In June 2023, the Atlantic East Conference of NCAA Division III announced five of its seven member institutions would independently sponsor women's flag football in the spring of 2025, with support from the NFL and the Philadelphia Eagles.[36] In July 2024, Conference Carolinas of NCAA Division II announced that six of its 16 member schools would sponsor women's flag football, starting in the spring of 2026.[37]
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Canadian Flag Football League
The Canadian Flag Football League (CFFL) was established in 2019 and runs Canada's CFFL National Championship.[38] The league is affiliated with Football Canada, the national governing body for football in Canada and its variants. The winners of the CFFL National Championship also gain the opportunity to represent Canada in international competition.
The league's major objective is to help integrate existing adult flag leagues on a nationwide basis. Depending on the region, teams compete in their Regional Championships, either Eastern, Western, or Central. The top two teams from each division advance to the national championship.
There are three divisions for the CFFL: male, female, and mixed.
Flag Football National Championships
The Canadian Flag Football National Championships (FFNC) was established in 2007 to provide athletes with the opportunity to develop their skills and compete in national team competitions and eventually the Canadian Flag Football League (CFFL) which was established in 2019. Since its inception, the format of the championship has undergone several changes.[39]
In 2011, in response to the growth of flag football and the development of Football Canada's Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model, the under-15 co-ed division was replaced by separate boys and girls under-16 divisions. These divisions supplemented the pre-existing under-18 divisions that were added in 2010.
By 2013, the championship featured three divisions: male and female under-16 divisions and a female under-18 division.
In 2017, with the introduction of the Under-16 Regional Flag Challenge, the championship shifted to an under-18 format with male and female divisions.
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Flag football competition in the United Kingdom is, mostly, 5-a-side. There are two main organizations: The adult-only Outlaw Flag League,[40] which run Tournaments from March to October, culminating in playoff and championships. Secondly, the NFFL, The National Flag Football League, organized by The British American Football Association (BAFA). At a senior level, there are sixty teams divided into two leagues. NFL Division One: Highlands, North A, North B, Midlands, South East, and South West[41] and The Premiership: Highlands, North, South East, and South West, with the top teams qualifying for playoffs at the end of the season. BAFA also runs The Youth Flag Football League (YFFL)[42] and organizes teams competing at under 17, under 14, and under 11.[43][44] Flag football games in the UK are played with five players on each side with no contact, and are officiated according to the IFAF flag football rules with a few minor variations.[45] The U17s and U14s, and, for the 2023 season U11s, compete in the National Youth Flag Football League, which runs from April to August, with teams playing in Local and regional tournaments to qualify for National Finals Day and ultimately be crowned National Champions.
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