IFAF unveils new World Flag trophy for 2026 championships

IFAF unveiled the first bespoke World Flag trophy at the 2026 Flag Football World Championships in Düsseldorf as the event reached the 50-day mark. The men’s and women’s winners on Sunday, August 16, will not only leave as world champions, they will also secure a guaranteed place at the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

The trophy is almost 55 centimeters tall and weighs 5.5 kilos. It has a matte aluminum finish, a walnut base and an IFAF logo visible from every angle. The design centers on a hand lifting a ball, with a flag wrapped around the arm.

The men’s and women’s versions are differentiated by a subtle detail on the base: a four-millimeter felt layer in deep blue for the men and deep red for the women. The trophy was designed and created in southern Austria through a process that included a 3D scan, plaster cast, clay modeling, 3D printing and lost-wax casting in a non-industrial foundry in Styria. The championship itself traces back to Austria in 2002.

Düsseldorf will host the championships from August 13-16, 2026, with the top 16 men’s and women’s national teams in a more selective format than the record-setting 2024 event in Lahti, Finland. IFAF’s revised qualification system, announced in February 2025, gives automatic places to the host nation and the 2025 continental champions, while the remaining berths are allocated through a weighting system meant to preserve global balance. The city’s dedicated flag football complex, opened earlier in 2025 by Düsseldorf and the NFL’s New England Patriots, gives the tournament a purpose-built stage to match the sport’s ambitions.

Pierre Trochet, the IFAF president, called the trophy a prize that belongs to the athletes and a symbol that can become instantly recognizable in the sport. The 2024 World Championships were the largest ever, with 55 teams from 32 nations, and the United States swept both titles, with the men beating Austria 53-21 and the women defeating Mexico 31-18.