Flag football makes its Olympic Games debut at the LA 2028 Games, the variant of American football set to soar as the Games go stateside. Here’s how the sport works and what to expect when watching flag football for maybe the first time.
How does flag football work?
Matches are played over two 20-minutes halves with similar rules to American football, but with crucial differences.
Five players are on the pitch at any one time, with 10 players on each team. Five players in the squad are in play during defense, while the other five are in action during offense.
Offenses have four ‘downs’, which is when play resets after a tackle, or if a ‘first down’ is achieved.
Teams attack from their five-yard line, just in front of their end zone, and have four downs to reach the halfway line.
If the offense reaches the halfway line, a team has four more downs to score a touchdown in the endzone, which is when a clean catch is made inside the 10-yard section at the end of the pitch, or if the ball is held as a player runs into the endzone.
The ball is turned over if a team is unsuccessful at either stage. A touchdown is worth six points and after scoring a touchdown, teams can add extra points.
In flag football, there is no kicking or punting. Instead of a choice between a field goal and two-pointer, teams can try score an extra point with one down from the five-yard line, or two points from the 10-yard line.
A non-contact sport, players make a tackle and force a down by pulling a flag off an opponent, which are worn on the side of a player’s hips, with one more flag near the tailbone.
The down also ends when the ball-carrier goes out of bounds, or if a forward pass hits the ground.
The pitch is 70 yards long and 25 yards wide, instead of a standard sized American football pitch which is 120 yards long and 50 yards wide.
This means that the play is in close quarters and is action packed, with pressure placed on quarterbacks, who are the players who pass the ball, to complete their passes.
What is the history of flag football?
Flag football’s origins lie in World War Two, when American soldiers played the game as a safer alternative to American football at bases.
The sport made its World Games debut in 2022 in the US in Birmingham, Alabama, and appeared again in 2025 in Chengdu, China.
American football has made two demonstration appearances at Olympic Games in the 20th century.
In 1904, 11 matches were played amongst college football sides at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.
28 years later, 60,000 people at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which will co-host the opening ceremony and stage the closing ceremony, watched a college all-star match, when a West side, with seniors from California, Stanford and South Carolina, took on the East Coast’s best from Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
How will the Olympic tournament work?
The men’s and women’s tournaments will have six teams playing for gold, with spectators able to catch the action from 15 July through 22 July.
The preliminaries will knock out two sides from each competition before the semi-finals take place on 20 and 21 July.
The men’s medals will be decided on 21 July with the women’s medal games on ‘Super Saturday’, 22 July.
Exposition Park Stadium will host all the action, switching football (or soccer) for flag football. Home to MLS and NWSL sides Los Angeles FC and Angel City FC, the stadium opened in 2018 with a capacity of 22,000.
And excitingly, the National Football League (NFL) have cleared their players to compete – meaning that the best in the world are up for selection.
How strong are the British teams?
Great Britain have launched themselves to the top of the European game over recent years.
GB's women defended their European title at the 2025 IFAF European Championship in Paris, while GB’s men made the semi-finals.
The women’s side are ranked third in the world, only behind the USA and Mexico, with the men’s team the 12th best in the world.
British squads made it to the knockouts in the World Championships in two years ago, the women just one touchdown away from the semi-finals.
How could Team GB qualify?
The IFAF Men’s and Women’s Flag Football World Championships, which are taking place in Düsseldorf from 13-16 August, serve as the first qualifying events.
The top two eligible teams in each of the men’s and women’s World Championships reach the Games.
The 2028 Olympic Q-Series will be the second and final opportunity to qualify in June 2028. The Q-Series will be held in two stages in Montreal, Canada, from 1-4 June, and in Orlando, Florida, from 8-11 June.
The three best sides in men’s and women’s 10-team tournaments will qualify. The two best eligible sides from the 2027 IFAF European Championship will make the Q-Series.
Sportsbeat 2026