The International Federation of American Football has established a Flag Football Rules Committee and two Rules Editors responsible for the process of reviewing and defining the Rules of the Game for Flag Football.
The committee is advisory and makes recommendations to the Executive Board to assist IFAF in achieving its vision, values and strategic goals as outlined in the Strategic Plan.
There is one Rules Committee for Flag Football with standing sub-groups for representation from athletes, equipment, welfare, broadcast, and youth sports.
The committee was appointed following a process of applications and considered regional representation, gender, ethnicity and areas of expertise.
Flag Football Committee
- Sebastian Sudholt (GER) – Chair
- Magnus Lauesgaard (DEN)
- Scott Woloshin (CAN)
- Paul Brownd (NZL)
- Lars Carlsen (IFAF Staff)
- Eric Mayes (IFAF Executive Board)
Rules Editors
- Desiree Abrams (USA) – English
- Allan Kotliar (ARG) – Spanish
Nonvoting Observers:
- Andy Fuller (IFAF)
- NFL Representative
The Rules Committee kicked off meetings in September and considered how to relaunch the IFAF rules review and change process, condense and simplify the Flag Football Rulebook and separate and build tournament and competition regulations for more efficient competition management.
“Everyone on the committee was very enthusiastic to review rules changes after this first meeting,” said the committee chair Sebastian Sudholt. “We will meet again in December to get started on substantial discussions.
“At the heart of this will be the penalty that defines Flag Football, namely Illegal Contact. Everyone agreed that we need to address this penalty in our rules changes for 2027 since its current definition is rather vague while the penalty itself has clear implications.”
The committee discussed the process of how rules changes can be proposed in the future and agreed on a process where IFAF both solicits potential proposals from member federations and considers the input of committee members.
The committee plans to prepare a new set of rules for 2027 which will take effect before flag football debuts at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028, with all proposed changes received by January 2026.
The committee also agreed to invite experienced broadcasters and fans of the game to discuss the rules of flag football to determine if any proposals might improve the game for the television viewer due to flag football’s increasing popularity as a spectator sport.
The general focus of rules changes will continue to improve player safety and the balance of the game.
# # #
