IFAF Euro Flag – Men: New continental champion to be crowned as four nations advance to semifinals

Europe will have a new continental champion in the men’s tournament after Austria, Great Britain, France and Italy advanced to Saturday’s semifinals of IFAF Euro Flag 2025.

Reigning champion Germany, the world’s fourth-ranked team was unbeaten after the first day of action but suffered a 36-30 defeat to unranked newcomer Slovenia then lost 33-32 to Denmark and missed out on a place in the quarterfinals.

Saturday’s two semifinals will be played at 9.15am and will be streamed live at IFAF.TV. The Gold Medal Game takes place at 3.30pm.

Host France is thriving on the buzz created from a passionate home crowd at the Val-de-Marne Interdepartmental Sports Park in Choisy-le-Roi, Val-de-Marne, in the southeast suburbs of Paris

“The energy is electric,” says France defensive back Vincent Lemoine. “I’ve never had this feeling. We saw kids screaming our names and we have family and friends and people we don’t even know traveling all across France to see us. It’s crazy. It’s helping us so thank you for all coming and please come again tomorrow to help us so that it will be not only a team win but a global win with the crowd.”

Austria qualified for the final four with a convincing 42-19 victory to end Slovenia’s fairytale run to the quarterfinals and will take on host France for a place in the Gold Medal Game.

“Our minimum goal was to reach the top six and thus qualify for the world championships,” said Austria head coach Michael Salamon. “Now we are in the semifinals, having played the quarterfinals confidently. Of course, it is now clear that on Saturday we want to fight for gold. For that, full focus is needed from the start of the day.”

France overcame IFAF world championships bronze medalist Switzerland 42-36 to delight the home crowd.

“What a day!” added Lemoine. “We usually fall in the quarterfinals but this year the group is really solid and there is a good cohesion of players and friends and that helps in the down moments.

“Austria are a strong team and we know they have very good potential. We need to really focus on our game, take the game one play at a time, focus on our assignments and get the energy of the crowd and if we do that, I believe the score will take care of itself.”

A defiant Great Britain scored late to go ahead against Denmark and then rubber-stamped victory with a pick six in a 32-19 win. The Brits will face Italy, who outlasted Israel 41-38.

“Defensively we never executed our game plan but in the second half we really reached further, started moving the ball, getting the stops on defense,” said Great Britain defensive back David McInally. “Ollie Dyer our defensive captain came up with two interceptions. The team’s just so resilient and 20 seconds to go, fourth down, it was an interception that sealed the game for us.”

The top six nations will for qualify for the 2026 IFAF Flag Football World Championships to be played in Dusseldorf, Germany, next summer from August 13-16. With the semifinalists assured of their berth, those beaten in the quarterfinals – Denmark, Slovenia, Israel and Switzerland – still have everything to play for on Saturday.

“Our expectations were a lot higher, we were hoping to reach the final four, but all things considered, Austria is a very strong team as well as Denmark and they both beat us today,” said Slovenia receiver Kuka Grošelj. “The plan for today was to win and it unfortunately didn’t happen that way.

“We’ve got to get some rest and then it’s just keeping our head in the game, but we’re going to the final battle fully charged and waiting for our opponent to make mistakes and we’ll capitalize from there.”

In the final group games Austria came from behind to top Group A with a touchdown inside the final minute to finish ahead of Great Britain. While Denmark, Slovenia and Germany were scrapping over the top two spots in Group B, Poland and Finland earned their first wins over Belgium then Finland beat Poland for fourth place in the standings.

Group C was topped by free-scoring Israel after a 52-46 win over host France. In group D, Portugal first won for the first time in IFAF competition over Norway, while Switzerland edged Italy by two points to top the group as both nations advanced.

“We started the day wanting to win and that was our main goal,” said Portugal defensive back Marcos Mitt. “We won our first game in history and now we won a placement game against Slovakia, so we ended the day on a good note.

“For us it is really special to have these wins. Some of us have been playing flag for ten years so it is very special for us to be here. To win and finally show some progress to the people have been supporting us is a very good feeling. We want to keep winning. We are confident. We are energized now and winning snowballs.”