Flag football ready to take off in Singapore, as team eye 2028 Olympic Games

SINGAPORE – Crouched down and eyes locked as they face one another in a horizontal line on a field, there is eager tension in the air as 10 men eye an oval-shaped ball while awaiting the go-ahead for the game to start.

What looks like a game of touch rugby to passers-by at the Ai Tong School field is actually flag football – a non-contact variant of American football that is gaining traction in Singapore.

On closer inspection, there are notable differences between the two sports – the flag football is tan-coloured and players wear a belt with two flags attached to their torsos and gloves to improve grip. Passes made are often vertical rather than lateral and play is more stop-start.

It may be a niche sport but interest in flag football has been gathering steam after it was revealed in October as one of six new sports for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Not many people know this but Singapore has a flag football national team – formed only in July 2023 and consisting of about 20 locals.

The origins of the team can be traced back to 2007, when a group of American football enthusiasts – who were largely expatriates – met on a Facebook group and created the Singapore Flag Football Association (SFFA).

But with the sport played in a five-on-five format, getting enough players to turn up for weekly sessions was initially a challenge.

SFFA executive officer Stephen Gonzalez, one of the founding members, said: “Initially, we wouldn’t even get 10 people showing up. You’d get like four or five, sometimes six people.

“So essentially it was like, let’s just go out here and throw a football around for a few hours. Maybe run a few routes, and that’s basically it.”

In 2014, as interest in the National Football League (NFL) grew, SFFA was able to set up an eight-week league season that ran thrice a year. Before every new season, a draft process is used to reallocate the pool of about 80 players into four different teams.

The league, played in an eight-on-eight format, is an important platform for local players to get match experience.

National flag footballer Nathaniel Tan, 22, said: “When I first started, I wasn’t really that experienced, so I didn’t have much playing time. Everyone was really competitive but I stuck to it.

“During the Covid-19 period, I trained with a few people in a small group so I was able to hone my skills, find out which positions I prefer and just find my love for flag football again.”

Tan, who picked up the sport in 2019, is one of numerous local players with backgrounds in ultimate frisbee. Like many of them, he made the switch due to his passion for American football.

They then formed the national team to compete in the inaugural Asia Oceania Flag Football Championships in Kuala Lumpur in October. British expatriate James Rosewarne, who has played in the SFFA league since 2018, volunteered to coach the team.

They went up against regional powerhouses like Australia and Thailand and, while they finished 10th out of 11 countries, the team gained invaluable experience from their first international outing.

Tan said: “Other countries had years of practice and many selections before they formed their teams, while for us it was just getting to know each other every Saturday before we headed off for the tournament. Even during the games, we were still figuring out what each other does and our different playing styles.”

Rosewarne, 32, who is also a Level 2 certified cricket coach, believes the gap with the top regional sides can be bridged.

He said: “It was such a learning experience for the players. We’ve just got to play more games as a team. We have to understand what our strengths are, what our weaknesses are. We should be competing in these tournaments at a high level and expecting to be minimum top half of these groups.”

In 2024, the national team will be back on the international stage at the Aug 25-30 Flag Football World Championships in Finland alongside 23 other nations.

SFFA also intends to register as a national sports association so that the national team can qualify for, and compete in, major events such as the SEA Games and the 2028 Olympics.

A Paris debut would be a dream come true for the national athletes and some like Brian Ong are already buzzing with excitement at flag football’s inclusion in the Olympics.

Ong, 23, said: “The group chat we had was buzzing. I ran a few rounds around the house.

“My mom was like, ‘what’s your problem?’, before I showed her the news. It was at night (11pm), when no one should be shouting.”

With the Los Angeles Games five years away, Gonzalez hopes more locals will pick up the sport.

He said: “These are very early days for us and it’s definitely going to be an uphill battle. But do we want to send a team to the Olympics? Absolutely. Yes.

“We will do everything that we possibly can to support the national team. Even if it doesn’t come in LA, we will still be pushing to grow the national team.”