IFAF Conference -Stockholm

Report via IAFA Chairman Greg Loughran

Internatioanl Federation of American Football (IFAF) President,Tommy Wiking announced that it was IFAF's intention to develop American Football as an OLYMPIC SPORT. This required 70 national federations within IFAF and at present the were 50. There were plans to have the number in the next 2/3 years. Ireland was a founding member of IFAF at a meeting in Sicily in 1998. Mr. Steve Stacher was the Irish Delegate.

The first thing presented was a proposal for IFAF DEVELOPMENT OFFICERS. The basic idea is that IFAF creates a person or team to come to your country and help out with football. This was discussed at length on weither it should be a coaching/managerial/technical person or team. No agreement was reached but it was agreed that the idea was sound and to develop it further.

Equipment Solutions is a proposal to help federations aquire equipment for football, which is agreed to be a global problem. The idea of IFAF being a go between for a global bulk order from all federations was talked about. A number of proposals were put forward and each one had it's own set of problems. A twice yearly order date is a possibility but the logistics were left hanging and no decision was made.

A presentation on LTPD (long term player development) was given.

We all filled in a survey on "Top 5 Challenges facing football in your country"..excluding money. Surprising how many had the same problems, equipment,coaches,referees,media, facilities etc.

A presentation on the origins of the $2.465 million YFF grant and the implications of the many ways of spending it was given by Scott Hallenbeck,IFAF Treasurer. Interesting but...

Possibly the best feature of the whole conference was the introduction of the ONLINE COACHING and OFFICIATING COURSE. This is on the www.usafootball.com site. IFAF will have a new web site soon also and are looking to tansfer this to it.

There was a presentation on Flag Football Development in Australia and a presentation on IFAF Coaching Development

The best presentation was by Swedish Youth Coach Jan Jenmert. It compared the football practise in Sweden with USA. Percentages, hours spent on various aspects of football and why they were different...excelent stuff and a good guide for running a team practise through the year.

Roope Noronen presented a discussion on International Competitions. A good general discussion and after a break Roope presented a list of competitions for the next 10 years although this was without any venues etc. The Group C competition from last year was mentioned and the fact that a team had failed to attend. The fact that the missing team was fined was not popular with everyone as it was deemed to be pointless, however the costs incurred to the host country were felt to be reasonable for future similar problems. The arranging of friendly games between countries was agreed to be a good idea for encouraging internation co-operation and stabalizing national teams.

The conference ended on Sunday afternoon after 2 1/2 days.

In conclusion, 32 countries attended which is twice as many as has ever attended before. The future has been forecast to be bright for Football Worldwide. Ireland is a comparitivly small player in the great scheme of IFAF but they were impressed that we had come back from the dead and that our growth predictions were good.

The congress is in Seville in July.