Israel National News spoke to Steve Leibowitz, president of American Football in Israel (AFI), about this week’s IFAF Flag Football World Championships that took place in Jerusalem from December 6 to 8.
The tournament featured 39 teams from 23 countries from all over the world, including Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Belarus.
“We’ve got over 800 visitors from overseas,” Leibowitz says.
When asked about the differences between American tackle football and flag football, he explains: “It’s different rules than American tackle football that you’re familiar with from television with helmets. It’s a bit less violent, let’s say. In order to stop a person you have to pull the flag that’s around their waste rather than throwing the person to the ground. A lot of other rules are a bit different than American football. But it’s a very similar game.”
With the tournament going on during covid, the players will likely have less of a chance to get to know Israel, but Leibowitz hopes that they get to do at least a little sightseeing and will want to come back in the future as tourists.
“This is an international sports event first and foremost. If the visitors get a chance to tour Israel, that’s great from our point of view,” he says. “We don’t know if that is going to happen during the corona period – a lot less touring. Hopefully they’ll have had a taste of Israel and they’ll all want to come back here as tourists on their own time.”
According to AFI, over 2,000 Israelis play organized American football in Israel, and the sport is rapidly growing to become one of Israel’s most popular team sports.
“Attracting players and fans from all walks of life, economic levels, ethnicities, and religions, the AFI strives to unify players, coaches, referees, and fans in an American football community,” explains the organization, which is the official government-recognized Federation of American Football in Israel and serves as the umbrella for all football activities in Israel.
AFI adds that “within the framework of competitions organized by the International Federation of American Football, the Israeli flag football National teams are among the best in the world.”
Previously, their state-of-the-art Kraft Family Sports Campus in Jerusalem hosted the IFAF European flag football championship in 2019.