IFAF members from Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the United States are attending the conference with the goal of increasing female participation in the sport worldwide and raising the profile of the women’s game. The conference will provide a platform for knowledge sharing among countries with established women’s programs and those interested in learning more about developing women’s football.

The conference was a day long event from 10:00 to 17:00 at the Zinkensdamms IP in Stockholm which is also the location of the IFAF Women’s World Championship games with the medal games being held on Saturday, July 3 with Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and United States competing in the tournament.

To kick off the event, IFAF President Tommy Wiking greeted the group before diving into a full day of discussions about women’s international American Football leagues.

After hearing about each country’s stories and development of the sport for women, Samantha Rapoport, who works with Youth Football in the National Football League organization, will address the group about the NFL Girls High School football flag program and the benefits of developing the game that can be used as a feeder system in developing a women’s football league.

Also speaking at the event was IFAF Executive Board member Dr. Elesa Argent from the British American Football Association (BAFA).  She will lead a group session discussing issues that may arise when developing a women’s football league.

Argent is undertaking a study on women’s football and will use the information from the meeting as a springboard for her work.

The participating counties learned about the women’s competitions available and the national team program including all the planned and upcoming IFAF competitions which will be led by IFAF Junior Vice President Roope Noronen from Finland.