International Federation of American Football

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International Federation of American Football

Formation	1998
Headquarters	La Courneuve, France
President	Tommy Wiking
Website	http://www.ifaf.info/

International Federation of American Football (IFAF) is the international governing body of American football associations outside of the United States. The IFAF also oversees the World Cup of American Football which is held every four years. Japan won the first two World Cups held in 1999 and 2003, before Team USA became involved in the tournament and won the 2007 event.

1 History
2 Goals
3 Federations
4 Members
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

The first national American Football federation outside of the United States was founded in Canada in 1896, as Canada already had a long history with Canadian football. Japan was also an early adopter of American football, establishing its national federation in 1936. The first European federation was formed in 1976. Since then, the sport has experienced a significant expansion, especially in Europe, culminating in the founding of the European Federation of American Football in 1996. Two years later (1998), the International Federation of American Football was officially formed. The IFAF became a provisionary member of the General Association of International Sports Federations in 2003, and became a full GAISF member in 2005.

Currently, 45 associations in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania are organized within the IFAF, representing 23 million athletes around the world.

[edit] Goals

The goals of the organisation are:

To be part of the international sporting community
Admission into the General Association of International Sports Federation
Acceptance by the IOC
Participation in the World Games as well as the Olympic Games to be stong^[clarify] to play football