Flag soccer, a non-contact model of American soccer, is quickly catching on within the UK with a surge within the variety of colleges concerned and participation numbers set to hit 100,000 by 2026.
Fuelled by an brisk marketing campaign by the New York-based NFL to encourage younger folks in Britain to attempt the much less violent various, groups with names such because the Northants Geese, the South Coast Spitfires and the London Fruit Bats are experiencing rising demand.
Faculty PE academics have reported elevated curiosity amongst youngsters pushed partially by the sport’s rising international profile in addition to dad and mom’ considerations that rugby and full-contact American soccer pose too nice a threat of mind harm. This yr, 343 colleges entered occasions for the UK NFL Flag Nationwide Championship, a 78% annual enhance.
“Within the final three years it has gone berserk,” mentioned Jay Taylor, who based the Fruit Bats flag soccer membership in Ealing, west London. “Flag soccer has an opportunity of sticking right here, as a result of there’s nothing prefer it.”
The profile of flag soccer has additionally been boosted by the Worldwide Olympic Committee’s resolution to incorporate the game for the primary time on the 2028 Los Angeles Video games and by the NFL’s swap of its end-of-season showpiece Professional Bowl match from full contact to flag.
It’s one in every of a number of fast-growing new sports activities within the UK that embrace pickleball, a model of brief tennis utilizing a strong bat that has turn into massively widespread in California and is now catching on from Cornwall to Newcastle. Padel, a cross between tennis and squash beloved {of professional} footballers, can also be spreading with the previous Wimbledon champion Andy Murray amongst these opening courts.
Flag soccer is a model of the sport through which defenders make “tackles” by grabbing a cloth “flag” connected by Velcro on each participant’s belt fairly than the form of crunching bodily assault that folks, and medical doctors, more and more worry may cause long-term mind injury. As an alternative of 11 absolutely armoured gamers on the pitch for either side, 5 to seven take the sector in simply shorts, T-shirts and trainers. The ideas of the sport are the identical: the offence making an attempt to advance the ball by way of a collection of pre-planned performs whereas the defence tries to cease them.
The Fruit Bats have already got 70 gamers aged 14 and below. In contrast with soccer, which is performed by greater than 3.3 million youngsters, the probabilities of success are increased. A big draw seems to be the NFL’s annual invitation to the very best college groups to compete in a world event in Florida.
Taylor mentioned the NFL and several other of its skilled groups have been additionally fast to assist colleges and golf equipment by providing balls and flag belts. The Jacksonville Jaguars have been selling “Jag Tag” within the UK for a number of years. This yr the New York Jets, owned by Donald Trump’s former ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, and the Chicago Bears introduced an enlargement of their women’ tag soccer league within the UK.
Jacob and Leia, each 11, are members of the Little Ealing main college staff that gained the nationwide title this yr and are as a consequence of compete on the February 2025 NFL Flag World Championships in Florida.
Leia, who performed her first sport when she was 10, mentioned: “I by no means knew the game earlier than. You get to run rather more and there’s a playbook which is kind of enjoyable and the quarterback will get to determine what play we do.
“You want to have the ability to bounce excessive, get into area, watch the ball, run quick and dodge gamers.”
Jacob added: “It’s worthwhile to ensure you hear properly and actually perceive what you’re doing.”
Amid the college’s success, the PE instructor Bobby Behzadi mentioned he had been inundated with a “ridiculous” variety of gamers eager to hitch subsequent yr’s staff, their curiosity boosted by the opportunity of a visit overseas. However a part of the recognition is the vary of roles on every staff suiting folks with totally different strengths.
“Pace helps, however the thinkers can get into it too,” Behzadi mentioned. “It’s a sport of cat and mouse. There’s a variety of resolution making and exploiting and discovering weaknesses within the opposition defence. We have now individuals who won’t be the quickest runner however have good arms and might play quarterback.”
