2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championships: Preview, all groups, and how to watch live action
The key things you need to know about the 2024 Flag Football World Championships ahead of the sport's Olympic debut at the LA 2028 Games.
Flag Football
The 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championships take place from 27 August to 30 August in Lahti, Finland.
One of the new Olympic sports being introduced at LA 2028, the best flag football players in the world will compete for the respective world titles.
Flag football is a variant of American football (or gridiron) where the aim is to advance up the pitch via a series of offensive plays into the opposition’s defensive endzone.
Get ready for flag football with the key thing you need to know about the upcoming world championships, below.
2024 Flag Football World Championships venues and groups
Matches will take place at the Pajulahti Olympic Training Centre in southern Finland, with 32 men’s and 23 women’s national teams facing off to be crowned world champions.
There are eight groups in the men's competition, where the top two finishers will qualify for the knockout stages. On the women's side, there are five groups where the top three advance, with the best fourth-place finisher making up the round of 16.
The United States return as defending champions in both the men’s and women’s competitions, defeating Mexico in the respective finals three years ago.
The US men’s national team will face all-European opposition in Spain, Brazil, and Serbia in their four-team group stage, while the US women take on Australia, France, Sweden and Ireland in their group of five.
Other nations to watch out for in the men’s tournament include Germany, Austria and France, while defeated semi finalists in 2021, Panama and Italy, will be aiming to go one step further to reach the final on 30 August.
In the women’s competition, Japan and Great Britain come into the tournament with possibilities to challenge the US. Meanwhile, Mexico will hope to avenge their final defeat three years ago and win their first world championship since 2012.
2024 Flag Football World Championships: Schedule
Competition gets underway on 27 August in Finland with the group stage games, taking place over four days before the final medal rounds conclude on 30 August.
The full schedule can be found on the IFAF website.
2024 Flag Football World Championships: How to watch the action live
The Flag Football World Championships will be available to watch on TV broadcasts and digital livestreams in many parts of the world, including on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com throughout the competition (territorial restrictions apply).
Coverage in the USA is on ESPN and ABC.