By Michael Preston
Germany already boasts gold and bronze medals from last year’s IFAF European Flag Football Championships and has now stated an intention to compete on the world stage by appointing one of the nation’s most talented coaches as Sports Director for Flag Football.
Shuan Fatah needs no introduction within European American football. The Berlin native has won multiple titles in Germany as both a player and coach, was a national coach with NFL Europe, and achieved great success with the Swarco Raiders in Austria. Among numerous accomplishments he counts four World Bowls, six German Bowls, five Austrian Bowls, two Eurobowls, and three CEFL championships.
Last February, Shuan was named head coach of Germany’s men’s national team in tackle football, a role he will now combine with overseeing the AFVD’s flag football programs.
“I'm very excited about it, especially because there’s a lot of people in place already and they’re doing a great job in Germany with flag football,” says Shuan. “We’re going to start a flag coaches education program next year which was not in existence before, so all that stuff is happening right now, and we’re getting organized with the German Olympic Committee. We’re part of it now of course.
“There’s a lot of structural changes within our federation and a lot of work to do. I started on the first of October, and it is a slow process compared with working at the team level, but it’s fun to work on.”
Shuan will soon integrate his knowledge and experience with the coaching philosophy of the German flag football teams, which are already poised to challenge at the 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Finland in August. In Ireland last summer, Germany’s men won the continental gold medal with a thrilling 36-38 victory over Austria, while the women brought home bronze, beating France 41-14.
“We are already well organized and the group that took care of flag the last ten to fifteen years, you’ve got to tip your hat because they did a great job of keeping the game at a high level with not much support from the federation,” explains Shuan. “We have Torsten Grom, who is an awesome dude who is in charge of the national flag teams and has a good handle on everything and he analyzes their performances. I’m also leaning heavily on Chris Kämpfe and Jona Winkel, because they know the ins and outs and not just the game, they know people, they know how it works with IFAF and the federation, and they are a very big help.”
Despite those successes, change is still coming to the flag program. The addition of Flag Football to the Olympic Games program for the 2028 event in Los Angeles and the challenge to compete at this summer’s World Championships and The World Games in 2025 means there is still room for improvement.
“We do have good athletes already on our teams and most have a tackle background, so there’s a good structure there,” Shuan added. “There will be more tackle players who now want to join, but our vision will also be to look at great athletes from other sports who can play flag. Maybe we try to get a little bit younger because if we’re talking about the Olympics then, you know, it’s not tomorrow. You have to look at it in terms of development.
“With the funding now, it’s going to be more fun to be in flag and there are a lot of things we can start taking care of that were not taken care of before, like players had to pay for expenses on their own. Now they really have a good new environment where we can focus on the game and that may attract some guys and girls to join.”
Shuan is conscious of how important the retention of current flag football players is at all levels of the game, alongside attracting fresh talent who can elevate Germany’s challenge. One of the additions to the flag football environment to target improvement will be a strength and conditioning focus and the inclusion of a lifting program. That philosophy is endorsed by men’s flag football national team coach Florian Berrenberg, who like Shuan has his roots in the tackle game and was also an NFL Europe national coach.
“I was approached by Florian and his thoughts were that there are some great athletes in his team, but that we still have to establish a high-level educational program,” explains Shuan. “We have to get the right people on board that are experts in their field and that’s what all the other federations do in other sports. From reading their manuals, I see it’s all experts in sports psychology, strength and conditioning, great people. Medical has to be up to par, which is pretty good in Germany, and we’ve got great medical staff.
“Then we can find some crossover athletes, the guys and the girls that can play the game in a different way to the tackle players. I hear that some tackle players have a really difficult time getting used to the flag rules, so that’s something that's going to be really interesting to see when they start camps.”
Ultimately, the pursuit of gold medals – whether in the IFAF World Championships, The World Games, or the Olympic Games – will dictate the path the ambitious German Flag Football program takes.
“The best players are going to play,” says Shuan. “In Germany especially, everything is very much goal-orientated so if you have no chance to win then the funding is going to dry up. If you are potentially a medal team it goes up.
“We have to be goal-orientated yeah. That’s the naked truth. That's the brutal truth.”
Photo: Sonya Matysiak
