KUALA LUMPUR – The news of flag football’s inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics seems to have come at the right time for the Malaysia American Football Association (Mafa), with the country hosting the Asia-Oceania Flag Football Continental Championships from October 27 to 29.
Speaking to Scoop, Mafa vice-president Kelly Khor said that Malaysia’s national team will make its debut in the tournament, which will take place at the EV Arena in Shah Alam.
“The championships are one of three taking place in the world this year, and they will lead up to the world championships next year in Finland.
“For the Asia-Oceania region, Malaysia will be hosting the tournament. We are going to see about 11 nations take part.
“Leading up to this tournament, we took the initiative to form a national team together with a coaching staff consisting of a head coach, offensive and defensive coordinators, a strength and conditioning coach and a physiotherapist,” said Kelly, who was elected Mafa vice-president in January.
Malaysia was awarded the honour of hosting the championships after entering a bidding process and winning it.
From the 11 teams participating, nine will be sending their men’s and women’s teams, while the other teams will only be participating in the men’s category.
“Malaysia, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea will be participating in both categories, while Singapore and Kuwait are only sending their men’s teams.
Mafa has set a semi-final target for the national team and hopes that they will put in their best efforts to achieve the goal.
“We would want to qualify (for the world championships), and in order for that to happen, we need to make it to at least the semi-finals.
“They have been training every Tuesday and Thursday since April and have put a lot of effort into building their chemistry and knowledge of the game. So the expectation is that they do their best. That being said, their best is more than enough for us, so whatever that may be is something that we are already very proud of,” said Kelly.
On the possibility that the championships will be an Olympic qualifier, Kelly said the qualifying process for the Summer Games has yet to be finalised.
“The process has not yet been set in stone because the announcement (of flag football’s inclusion in the Olympics) was very recent.
“Right now, the stakeholders are ironing out all the details, and they haven’t informed anyone about the solid plan on how to proceed forward. But once we have that, of course, it will be known to the public as well,” she said. – October 22, 2023