Last Sunday, American rugby club Flevo Phantoms hosted the Sinterklaas Bowl. The game is not an American football game, but a flag football game. Flag football is an entry-level version of American football that involves minimal physical contact. Flag football will become an Olympic sport from 2028.
Whether it is a national team or a foreign team
The Almere association has four venues and a total of 11 teams competing in three age groups: Under-15, Under-17 and Senior (over 17 years). Teams from places such as Spikenisse and Leiden were in attendance, but teams from Germany and Belgium were also in attendance.
In flag football, each player has two flags on his hip. The goal is to score by the opponent pulling the flag from the belt of the player with the ball before the player with the ball reaches the goal. Compared to American football, the field is smaller and there are fewer players per team.
Coach Michel said flag football is the entry-level variant of American football at the Phantoms. “You play flag football here until you’re 15 or 16, and then you can think about putting on a helmet and playing American football instead.”
In the senior final, Flevo Phantoms defeated Kaiser Aachen in Germany, in the under-11 category Leiden Lightning defeated Spijkenisse Scouts, and in the under-15 final the Belgian Izechem Tribe came first.
