The wait is almost over. The tenth annual IFAF European Flag Football Championships begin this Thursday at the University of Limerick as a record number of 33 teams from 20 nations compete for the European crown in Ireland.
Featuring 20 men’s teams and 13 women’s teams, games played on the main Championship Field and adjacent Field 2 will be streamed live on IFAF.TV throughout the tournament being played from August 18-20.
The group alignments are outlined here, and IFAF Game Centre will be live from Friday featuring score updates.
Friday’s packed day of 43 games across seven playing fields begins after the official opening ceremony with reigning women’s European champions Spain taking on Austria at 9.45am. At the same time, the highest placed European finisher at The World Games last year, Italy’s men’s team, face tournament newcomers Ukraine. Targeting a seventh straight European title in the men’s competition, Denmark open their quest against Poland.
As the sport continues to grow at a rapid rate on the African continent, IFAF opened entries to teams looking to build experience, which was accepted by debut nation Cameroon, whose men make their bow against the first-ever European champions Austria at 11am.
Hosts Ireland begin their campaigns on home soil at 12.15pm when the women’s team take on Finland and the men come up against Italy.
Saturday features 38 games to conclude the round robin series. The top two teams in each of the four groups qualify for the men’s quarterfinals and the top four teams in each of the two women’s groups advance to their quarterfinals.
All knockout, placement and medal games will be played on Sunday, August 20, with the Bronze Medal Games scheduled for 3.15pm, then men’s Championship Game at 4.30pm and the contest for the women’s gold medal at 5.45pm.
The championship is part of the biggest-ever international cycle of Flag football competition, with regional events played on three continents for the first time. The expanded international calendar also includes the Americas championship played in July in the United States, and the Asia/Oceania tournament in Malaysia in October, culminating in the 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Finland.
