Mexico Headed to Dallas for IFAF Meeting and Answers

On Wednesday, January 28th, President of the Federacion Mexicana de Futbol Americano (FMFA), Jorge Orobio, will travel to the US to learn the status of the  2015 IFAF World Championships in Canton, Ohio and to find out if Mexico has won the bid to host the event U-19 Junior World Championships in 2016.

The Mexican director will meet with members of the Board of the IFAF (International Federation of American Football) to formalize the Aztec’s participation in this summer’s World Championships, which has recently changed its headquarters. This situation has caused the cancellation of participation of some qualified nations like Austria and Germany.

IFAF Meeting in Texas

The IFAF meetings will begin on Thursday the 29th and will discuss the shape and format of the approaching World Championships. A big question remaining is on whether the tournament’s format should be modified. Twelve nations were originally scheduled to compete but not all of the qualified teams have confirmed participation.

Last month, legal and organizational problems led to Stockholm, Sweden, forfeiting the seat of the contest and the IFAF awarding the new site for the contest to USA Football in Canton, Ohio, of the United States. This situation has caused increases in the cost of participation for many of the qualified teams, including Germany and Austria.

The IFAF has stated that it has been assured by at least eight teams will attend the new World Championship tournament, but has yet to define if they will open the door to other new nations, after the withdrawal of Austria and Germany and the forfeiture of former host Sweden.

Orobio will use the trip to review the possibilities of accommodation and training sites for the Mexican team during the World Championships as this has become a concern for all of the confirmed national teams. There is worry that Canton has few ideal spaces to efficiently receive such a high number competing nations.

For now confirmed teams are USA, Canada, Mexico, France, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Morocco is still an unknown at this time and the IFAF Americas Brazil v. Panama match on January 31st will define another place.

U-19 Junior World Championship to be Awarded

During Wednesday’s meeting, IFAF is also expected to be awarded the venue for the upcoming U-19 World Championship event for which Mexico has been a candidate since 2012 and now hopes to win approval.

The FMFA proposed to hold the tournament within the premises of Ciudad Universitaria, in Mexico City, which would have two stadiums with ample capacity in seats and more than five fields for training camps, as well as the entire hotel and transportation infrastructure that provides the Mexico’s capital.

The venue for this event could be decided on Friday and FMFA said that “is Mexico is accepted as the host of the event, the details of the organizational plan will be announced during the month of February.”

Source: https://joslarsport.blogspot.mx