The American Football Association of Germany (AFVD) is the national sports federation for American football in Germany. As a young and dynamic sport with a continuing upward trend, American football is still experiencing strong growth and is one of the few trend sports that has developed from a pure “trend” into a recognized part of the German sports landscape. The AFVD has succeeded in transferring a sport designed for the American sports system to Germany.
The AFVD consists of 15 regional associations in all federal states (Berlin and Brandenburg are served by a joint regional association). Founded only in 1982, the regional associations of the AFVD now include over 500 clubs with slightly more than 73,000 members and represent roughly half of all organized football players in Europe. The largest regional association is North Rhine-Westphalia with more than 80 clubs, while the smallest is AFV Nord (Bremen) with four clubs. In 1993, the AFVD was admitted to the German Sports Confederation, the predecessor of today’s German Olympic Sports Confederation.
Around 350 men’s teams and approximately 60 women’s teams regularly take part in the AFVD’s and its regional associations’ league competitions. Additionally, in the highest youth age group (U19), there are more than 200 teams, with at least as many in the younger age groups (U16, U13, U10), along with well over 100 flag football teams across various age groups and team sizes.
Flag football is a low-contact version of American football without protective equipment and is considered a potential path for the sport to reach the Olympic Games. For the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, the National Football League (NFL) has launched a major initiative to promote flag football as one of the additional disciplines that can be selected by the host country. Mona Stevens, quarterback of the German women’s national teams in both tackle and flag football, is one of the international ambassadors chosen by the NFL for this mission.
Germany’s league structure is highly differentiated: the ERIMA German Football League (GFL), the second division GFL 2, the youth Bundesliga GFL Juniors, and the German Flag Football League (DFFL) are organized as nationwide leagues by the AFVD. Regional leagues, upper leagues, state leagues, developmental leagues, youth leagues, youth developmental leagues, youth flag leagues, and flag football leagues are run by the respective regional associations. The men’s national team won the European Championship in 2001, 2010, and 2014, and earned the gold medal at the 2005 World Games. A women’s national team has participated in world championships, and the junior national team won four European titles in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2008.
Website for the association and the league: