USA Football to Host 2015 IFAF World Championships

| 2015 IFAF World Championships - Stockholm | 12/29/2014

After examining applications from a number of national federations, the IFAF (International Federation of American Football) Executive Board has accepted the application submitted by USA Football to hold the 2015 World Championships in Canton, Ohio.

Roope Noronen, acting IFAF point of contact is pleased that this small piece of the enormous puzzle is in place at least:

Roope Noronen3

Roope Noronen

“We still have a few obstacles to overcome though. The next step in this process is ensuring that all the participating countries will be able to reschedule, on such short notice, for a tournament in the United States instead of in Sweden. Once each countries’ participation is confirmed, then plans will move forward as quickly as possible.”

Ten days ago, SAFF – the Swedish American Football Federation – relinquished the rights to the World Championships, citing lack of funds and so the tournament was cancelled in Sweden. Since then IFAF has entertained interest and applications from various countries, but the USA application was given very serious consideration due to their ability to provide all the facilities in such short order.

Should everything fall into place, this would be the first time the World Championships will be held in the United States. This is a fairly young event. The first IFAF World Championships were held in Italy in 1999 with Japan coming out on top. In 2003, Germany was the host country and again Japan triumphed. For the 2007 championships in Japan, the United States participated for the first time and defeated Japan in a double overtime thriller 23-20. Team USA repeated the feat in Austria in 2011 overwhelming Canada in the final 50-7.

Roger Kelly is an editor and a writer for AFI. A former PR Director the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League for 7 years, he now lives in Sweden writing about and scouting American Football throughout the world.