The Israeli men’s flag football team, August 2024. Credit: Courtesy American Football in Israel.
Israel’s men’s and women’s flag football teams are kicking off their quest for a spot at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, at this week’s International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Flag Football World Championships (FFWC) in Lahti, Finland.
Team Panama at the 10th Flag Football World Championship in Israel. Photo by Josh Hasten
Thirty-nine teams from 23 countries around the world gathered in Israel this week for the International Federation of American Football’s (IFAF) 10th Flag Football World Championship, hosted by the American Football in Israel (AFI) organization at the Kraft Family Sports Campus in Jerusalem.
Israel’s flag football team. Credit: American Football in Israel.
The biannual tournament was originally scheduled to take place in Denmark in 2020 but was postponed due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
A member of the Israeli team goes for the flag. Photo by Shannon Nuszen.
Over the course of three days, it was a flag-football fan’s dream as 21 teams and more than 400 players, dressed in their country’s colors, took over a Jerusalem field from morning till evening.