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 individuals 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 partly by the sport’s rising international profile in addition to mother and father’ issues that rugby and full-contact American soccer pose too nice a danger 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 choice to incorporate the game for the primary time on the 2028 Los Angeles Video games and by the NFL’s change 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 embody pickleball, a model of quick tennis utilizing a strong bat that has turn into massively widespread in California and is now catching from Cornwall to Newcastle. Padel, a cross between tennis and squash beloved {of professional} footballers, can 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” hooked up by Velcro on each participant’s belt somewhat than the form of crunching bodily assault that folks, and medical doctors, more and more worry could cause long-term mind injury. As an alternative of 11 absolutely armoured gamers on the pitch for all sides, 5 to seven take the sector in simply shorts, T-shirts and trainers. The rules of the sport are the identical – the offence attempting to advance the ball by means of a sequence of pre-planned performs whereas the defence tries to cease them.
The Fruit Bats have already got 70 gamers aged 14 and underneath. In contrast with soccer, which is performed by greater than 3.3 million youngsters, the possibilities of success are greater. A major draw seems to be the NFL’s annual invitation to one of the best faculty groups to compete in a global match in Florida.
Taylor mentioned the NFL and a number of 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 growth of their ladies’ tag soccer league within the UK.
Jacob and Leia, each 11, are members of the Little Ealing major faculty staff that received the nationwide title this yr and are resulting from compete on the February 2025 NFL Flag World Championships in Florida.
Leia, who performed her first recreation 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 resolve 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: “You should be sure you hear nicely and actually perceive what you’re doing.”
Amid the varsity’s success, the PE trainer Bobby Behzadi mentioned he had been inundated with a “ridiculous” variety of gamers eager to affix subsequent yr’s staff, their curiosity boosted by the potential of a visit overseas. However a part of the recognition is the vary of roles on every staff suiting individuals with totally different strengths.
“Pace helps, however the thinkers can get into it too,” Behzadi mentioned. “It’s a recreation of cat and mouse. There’s quite a lot of choice making and exploiting and discovering weaknesses within the opposition defence. We’ve got individuals who may not be the quickest runner however have good arms and might play quarterback.”
