Flag football helps NFL develop local market
The abrupt postponement of the NFL China Game originally scheduled for August 9 between New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks in Beijing seemed to put the brakes on the growth of gridiron in China.
However, the NFL continued its efforts to promote the sport in the country by organizing the fourth edition of the China Flag Football (CFF), a simplified football game suitable for boys and girls at school age.
During the championship game on Sunday, the high school of Beijing Capital Normal University defeated Guangdong Peizheng High School 31-7 to take the crown and win a ticket to the World Cup to be held in New Orleans.
The Beijing team proved just too strong for the visiting Guangdong team who represented China last year and placed a record-high fifth place. After a brief tight moment at the beginning of the game, they managed to dominate in rain that forced the players to return and finish the game on Monday.
The local squad is one of 124 teams from high schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Harbin and Shandong. Since the NFL and the Ministry of Education reached an agreement in 2003 to introduce flag football to Chinese high school students, the game has developed quickly.
"Our flag football we've been playing over there for the last three years, we are starting to bring along a great deal of attention and focus on the popularity of our game," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was quoted as saying.
To cultivate the potentially enormous Chinese market, NFL will follow NBA by setting up a Beijing office in September.
(China Daily 06/27/2007 page22)
