IFAF soon to announce response to Expression of Interest for international tournaments

In the puzzling absence of a final ruling from CAS as to which IFAF, New York or Paris, is the legitimate governing body of international amateur American football,  the world of international American football continues to move forward, although slowly.

Nevertheless, most countries seem to have begun accepting the fact, that there is now only one IFAF with the IFAF NY faction now acting it seems as IFAF.

Both Austria and France have returned to “IFAF” and more and more countries are apparently doing so.

So Managing Director Andy Fuller has still been busy.

He sent out an email in January to American football federations throughout the world, asking for an Expression of Interest, a form to gauge their interest in a variety of international tournaments/competitions. He also sent out two reminders in February.

Dear nations,

As we lay down plans for future championships at regional/continental level and global level it is vital that we are able to plan effectively by knowing which nations are interested in participation. Not only does this aid us, it allows nations to effectively budget for competitions.

In order to do this we are asking every nation to express their interest in competing in one or a series of competition cycles (listed below).

The Expression of Interest is not binding. It does not commit you to competing. However, it is required if you wish to compete. Once competition schedules are set there is no intention to allow nations late entry, thereby forcing other nations to incur added expense to accommodate extra fixtures at short notice.

Once received, and once membership of the federation is secure, the relevant planning can take place and nations can review whether they wish to make a formal commitment to compete.

All Expressions of Interest need to be made on an official letterhead of the federation and signed by a Board member. The letter should be scanned and sent to [email protected] with [email protected] Ccd.

Nations must meet membership requirements in order to compete and remain in good standing.

It is recognised that different regions and continents will have slightly different qualification systems in place due to factors such as geography, number of member federations, and so forth.

The letter should state interest for the following competition cycles:

Flag Football

Regional / Continental Championships / Qualifiers for the 2020 World Flag Championships (adult women and men).

*Example: European Flag Football Championships

Starts following the completion of the 2018 World Championships in Panama.

U19 Tackle Football

Regional / Continental Championships / Qualifiers for the World u19 Championship.

*Example: European u19 Championship.

Starts following the completion of the 2018 World Championship in Mexico.

Women’s Tackle Football

Regional / Continental Championship / Qualifiers for the World Championship.

*Example: Women’s European Championship.

Starts – cycle underway following conclusion of 2017 World Championship in Canada.

Adult Tackle Football

Regional / Continental Championships / Qualifiers for the next World Championship.

*Example European Championship.

Starts – cycle starts Autumn 2019.

*Note, nations which are brand new to IFAF and which are conferred membership at the 2018 Congress will be provided with a short timeframe in which to express their interest.

The deadline for these Expressions of Interest was February 23 and Fuller has been busy this week sifting through all the responses and is compiling a list which should be ready by early next week.

This past summer saw two U19 European championships held, one in France (IFAF Paris) and the other in Denmark (IFAF NY).

A senior men’s championship is scheduled for July 28-August 5 but without, it would seem Germany, the reigning European title holder. The last unified IFAF European championship was held in 2014 in Austria with Germany defeating Austria in double overtime. 

In a surprising move, the Spanish American Football Federation (FEFA) sent out invitations to an open European challenge tournament.

The response next week from the various nations will be a good indicator, not only of how many countries wish to play international tournaments, but also how many are moving back towards a unified IFAF.

 

 

__________