 A game of flag football being played at theUniversity of Texas at Austin | |
| Highestgoverning body | |
|---|---|
| First played | c. 1940 inFort 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 in2028 |
| World Games | since2022 |
Flag football is a variant ofgridiron football (American football orCanadian football depending on location) where, instead oftackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier ("deflagging") to end adown. 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 theInternational Federation of American Football (IFAF) with theInternational Woman's Flag Football Association (IWFFA) governing the women's game.
Flag football will be a discretionary event for the2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the first time any gridiron football code has been a full part of an Olympic programme.
The best available records to date point to the early 1940s duringWorld 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 knownrecorded history of flag football can be traced toFort Meade, Maryland, USA, which is now generally accepted as the sport's birthplace. The first national flag football organization, the National Touch Football League (NTFL), was formed in the 1960s inSt. 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.
The specific rules of flag football vary widely by league, though all share in common their replication of the rules of traditionalAmerican 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. Most leagues have 10 players per team, 5 on offense and 5 on defence, there is no punting team for flag football.
.jpg)
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 fullCanadian 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 whetherlinemen are allowed to catch passes ("Eligible Linemen") or, as in the NFL / CFL, are not allowed to do so ("Ineligible Linemen"). Flag (andtouch) football may also be divided into "contact" or "non-contact", depending on whether or notblocking is allowed; if allowed, blocking is usually restricted to thechest.[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 grassfootball field, including on sand beaches; beach flag football has previously featured as a discipline at theAsian Beach Games.[10]
TheInternational Federation of American Footbal (IFAF) organise a biannualIFAF Flag Football World Championship.
In July 2022, theNational Football League (NFL) and the IFAF partnered on a bid for flag football to be included as an optional event during the2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The NFL had sponsored the inclusion of flag football as aninvitational event during that month's2022 World Games.[11][12] The NFL's executive VP of football operationsTroy Vincent stated that the sport was "the future of American football", as it was inclusive and had fewer barriers to access.[13] Flag football was shortlisted as one of nine sports advancing to the next phase of the bid process.[14] In October 2023, the LA organizing committee proposed the inclusion of flag football as an event,[15][16][17][18] which was officially approved at the141st IOC Session.[19][20]
Flag football has been contested at theWorld Games—a multi-sport event featuring sports and disciplines not currently contested at the Olympics—since the2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. The2022 World Games featured men's and women's tournaments, which were won by the United States and Mexico respectively.[11][12] Flag football returned for the2025 World Games inChengdu, China; only awomen's tournament was held.[21]
The International Flag Football Festival (IFFF) organizes the World Cup of Flag Football featuring teams from theUnited States,Mexico and several other nations.[citation needed]
The Kelly McGillis Classic is a women's tournament organised by the IWFFA held each February inKey West, Florida[22] where over 90 women and girls teams participate in 8-on-8, semi-blocking contact flag 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,[23] and a recognized sports organization of the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee.[24] 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 andwomen's) in federation-sanctioned international competition.[25]
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.
TheNational 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 quarterbackRussell 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.[26][27]
In2023, the NFL reformatted itsPro Bowlall-star game as the Pro Bowl Games, which featured teams ofAFC andNFC all-stars competing in skills challenges for points throughout the week of festivities, which then carried over into a series of three flag football games on the culminating Sunday.[28] In 2023 and 2024, NFL Flag also hosted its world championships as part of the Pro Bowl festivities.[29][30] In February 2025, NFL commissionerRoger Goodell stated that the NFL was considering launching professional flag football leagues, while a source with knowledge of the league stated toProFootballTalk that Goodell's statement was an "understatement" and that work on the proposed league is "very much underway".[31][32]
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]
By May 2020, theNational Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), in partnership with theNFL, had begun the process of adding flag football as a varsity sport for female student-athletes.[33] 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.[34]
In 2023, theNational Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) began to sponsor flag football as an emerging women's sport.[35][36]
In the spring of 2025,Atlantic East Conference ofNCAA Division III began independently sponsoring women's flag football, with support from the NFL and thePhiladelphia Eagles.[37] In July 2024,Conference Carolinas ofNCAA Division II announced that six of its 16 member schools would sponsor women's flag football, starting in the spring of 2026.[38] In February 2025, the NCAA's Committee on Women's Athletics recommended that the association's three division add flag football as a varsity sport under its Emerging Sports for Women program; at the time of the recommendation, approximately 65 NCAA member institutions had varsity- or club-level flag football teams.[39]
TheRéseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), aU Sports conference inQuebec, began sponsoring university women's flag football independently of U Sports in 2021.[40] Additionally, the RSEQ is also a member of theCanadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) and has sponsoredcollege women's flag football since 2009 and men's flag football since 2017.[41][42] The version of flag football played by the RSEQ is a hybrid of American football and Canadian football rules, utilizing Canadian fields and scoring rules with the 4 downs seen in the American game.[43]
The Canadian Flag Football League (CFFL) was established in 2019 and runs Canada's CFFL National Championship.[44] The league is affiliated withFootball 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.
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.[45]
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.
IFAF European Flag Football Championship since 2003. Last in 2025, whenItalian men's andBritish women's national teams win their respective European Championship titles inParis,France.
Flag football competition in theUnited Kingdom is, mostly, 5-a-side. There are two main organizations: the adult-only Outlaw Flag League,[46] which run Tournaments from March to October, culminating in playoff and championships. Secondly, there is the NFFL, the National Flag Football League, organized by theBritish 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[47] 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)[48] and organizes teams competing at under 17, under 14, and under 11.[49][50] 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.[51] The U17s and U14s, and U11s, compete in the National Youth Flag Football League, which runs from April to August, with teams playing in four conferences; Scotland, Northern, Middle England, and Southern to qualify for National Finals Day and ultimately be crowned National Champions.
| Mandatory sports | |
|---|---|
| Discretionary sports | |
| |
InternationalAmerican football (flag football) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Africa |  | |
| Asia | ||
| Americas | ||
| Europe | ||
| Oceania | ||
