Lahti, Finland, to Host 2024 Flag Football World Championships

The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) has announced that Lahti, Finland, will host the 2024 Flag Football World Championships at the Pajulahti Olympic and Paralympic Training Center.

The event will be held between August 25–30, 2024, bringing together the top men’s and women’s teams in one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. It follows the debut of flag football at The World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, last month, which saw Mexico’s women’s team and the U.S. men’s team win gold medals.

The Lahti tournament will serve as the climax of the biggest international cycle of flag football competition, including full continental representation for the first time. IFAF made the hosting announcement on the sidelines of the 2022 IFAF Women’s World Championship in tackle football, which took place in Vantaa, Finland, staged in partnership with the American Football Association of Finland (SAJL).

“We are delighted to entrust Finland and SAJL with the hosting rights to the 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championships, which will be the most important edition of the tournament to-date as we focus on leveraging the significant momentum and growth opportunities of this youthful, global, highly accessible and inclusive discipline of our sport,” said IFAF President Pierre Trochet.

“Finland has consistently proven an outstanding partner for IFAF events,” Trochet added. “The country’s innovative vision, youthful spirit and passion for sport – especially women’s sport – are a great match for everything we are trying to achieve with flag football. We are proud of all our work and investment to develop a sustainable global competition structure for flag football, of which this tournament will be the pinnacle.”

All games in the 2024 World Championship will take place at Pajulahti, the only official Olympic and Paralympic training center in Finland. The complex is in Lahti, 90 minutes north of Helsinki.