LAUSANNE – American football on Wednesday took the penultimate step needed before the sport can attempt to get onto the Olympic Games programme when it got the approval of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) powerful executive board.
The International Federation of American Football (Ifaf) will now need to wait for a further approval of the decision by the IOC session in October in Mumbai.
“Full recognition of the Ifaf is to be approved by the IOC session. It has fulfilled all necessary criteria to receive full recognition,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
Among the criteria for new sports to be recognised by the IOC is universality, as well as the number of existing national federations across continents.
The minimum criteria is to have 50 national federations from at least three continents.
At present, the Ifaf – which received preliminary recognition by the IOC in 2013 – can count on 74 national federations on five continents, with an estimated number of almost 4.8 million registered athletes.
“This proposal is a guarantee that the Ifaf’s strengthened statutes and operations meet the highest international standards,” said Ifaf president Pierre Trochet in a statement.
“It testifies to our significant and sustained progress as a federation over recent years.
“We are optimistic regarding the vote of the IOC session in October and remain committed to constantly evaluating how we can improve for the benefit of our athletes and our sport as it continues its rapid growth around the world.”
According to Olympic website Inside The Games, the Ifaf “has also adopted and implemented the World Anti-Doping Code, as well as the Olympic Movement Code on the Prevention of Manipulation of Competitions”.
“The Ifaf has demonstrated that it maintains its independence and autonomy in the governance of its sport,” the IOC also said following its executive board meeting.
“There were no objections from the member federations of all the International Federation umbrella associations.”
The Ifaf has been staging quadrennial world championships and developing flag football.
Flag football, a non-contact format of American football played by teams of five, is trying to get onto the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics programme as one of the sports added by the local organisers.
Progress on the 2024 Paris Games was also reported to the IOC during the meeting.
After achieving a 3.25 million record ticket sales for the global sporting showpiece in France next year, the registration for the second phase of the ticket sales has now started.
Registration for volunteers was also opened, with plans to recruit 45,000.
Test events will start this summer and several operational training exercises will take place as well. REUTERS, XINHUA
