Flag Football Seeks to Carve Out Space in Hong Kong's Sports Landscape

Trying to carve out space in a city where team sports are dominated by rugby and football is not an easy task, so having the shiny new toy of the Olympic movement and an association with the richest league in the world helps. Flag football may yet prove to be a flash in the IOC’s pan, with its participation in Los Angeles in 2028 a one-off in the same way breaking was in Paris two years ago, but there is ample evidence to suggest otherwise and if its popularity in mainland China is anything to go by, the sport is here to stay. According to the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), more than a million people now play the non-contact version on the mainland, and a women’s national team is making its major international debut this week at the IFAF World Flag Championships in Germany. While numbers are significantly fewer in Hong Kong, interest has grown rapidly and the path to wider acceptance is working its way through the city’s schools. “Hong Kong is predominantly rugby and soccer, so one of the main things that we’re trying to do is educate the crowd,” Jay Ma Ming-yui, president of the Hong Kong American Football Legion, said. “We try to go into schools, start interest classes and hopefully expand into an inter-school league eventually.”