The International Federation of American Football, IFAF, will hold its annual Congress on December 11, online, which will include elections and for the first time since 2015, there will be a full slate of new candidates.
In fact, not only will there be new candidates for virtually every post, but in almost every case, each candidate is running uncontested. The positions open include (candidate’s names in brackets) President (Pierre Trochet France,), Vice President (Scott Hallenbeck,USA), Director of Development (Makoto Koshi, Japan/Felipe Pereira, Brazil), General Secretary (Jim Mullin, Canada), Director for Competitions (Roope Noronen, Finland) and Director for Finance (Carl Michael Eschlböck, Austria).
In other words, IFAF will see an almost brand new board from top to bottom.
For those who are not clear on who IFAF is or what exactly they do, here is a brief rundown. The International Federation of American Football is the international governing body for the sport of amateur American football and is responsible for all regulatory, competition, performance and development aspects of the game on a global level.
Its mission and purpose include the following:
- The organization and promotion of all amateur international
competitions across both contact and non-contact versions of the game.
The promotion of the game and the provision of educational and
innovative resources for the football community to help strengthen the
growth of American Football for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.- The regulation of the game on and off the field of play through oversight
of its rules.- The recognition and support of national federations as they develop the
game in their respective countries.- The representation of the global game to international partners, be they
sporting organizations, federations or commercial interests.
In addition, IFAF oversees the running of all international tournaments between nations, such as the World Championships and the European Championships.
AFI will be introducing each of the candidates over the course of the week leading up to the elections.