Olympic Qualifying System for Flag Football Announced
Flag Football games will be played at the Stadium in Exposition Park in Los Angeles during the 2028 Summer Olympics. (Renderings by LA28)
Teams looking to qualify for the first ever flag football tournament at the 2028 Summer Olympics know the path forward.
The announcement was made by the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) after confirmation by the International Olympic Committee. In total, six teams will qualify for the men’s and women’s flag football tournament, which was approved for the games in October 2023.
“It’s now starting to get very real! LA28 is going to be an unforgettable, history-making moment for American football and I can’t wait to congratulate our first qualifiers at the IFAF World Championships in Düsseldorf this summer,” shared IFAF President Pierre Trochet. “The stakes and the levels of international competition in flag football have never been higher. We’re in for two years of unmissable action all around the globe.”
As the 2028 Summer Olympics will be hosted in Los Angeles, California, the United States will receive an automatic bid for both men’s and women’s flag football. All other teams will have to compete in IFAF-sponsored competitions over two years to have a chance to play on the world’s biggest sporting stage. These competitions begin with the 2026 IFAF Flag Football World Championships which will be hosted in mid-August in Düsseldorf, Germany. The top two remaining men’s and women’s teams from that tournament will receive bids.
The remaining teams will have another shot to earn bids at the 2027 IFAF Continental Championships where the top two teams from each continent will win the right to move forward to a final tournament in the Olympic Qualifier Series in spring and summer 2028, before the games officially begin. the three top-placed teams will receive the final three bids.
“It’s exciting to be able to reveal this first Olympic Qualification System for Flag Football, which showcases the competitiveness and universality of our most widely played and fastest-growing discipline,” remarked IFAF Board Director for Competitions Fabio Tortosa. “We know how precious and coveted these LA28 berths will be, and our guiding principles in designing the pathway have always been integrity and fairness, aiming to ensure equal opportunity for teams from every continent. Good luck to all those that are now in the starting gates!”
