Elite athletes in Mexico, the United States and various countries will have a new space to develop and fully concentrate on play professional football in the International Football Alliance (IFA), the newly announced league scheduled for 2024.
Looking for a space where players can focus on playing quality professional American football with a professional treatment In the style of the NFL, the IFA emerges, headed by Juan Manuel Bladé Cavazos, former president of the National Student Football Organization in Mexico (Onefa) and now Commissioner of the new league.
“The idea is not to compete with any league. The model for us is that they participate in football, if it’s going to be called professional, that they really be treated as professionals. It will be a decent salary, that they can live with it”, said Bladé, during the league presentation conference.
Also participated in the event Enrique Villanueva, partner of Tequileros de Jalisco; Mauricio Valderrama, general manager of Rarámuris, John Jenkins, from Texas; Dallas Stratichuk, owner of the Cancun Sharks; Dylan Stratichuk, partner of Cancun Sharksamong other notable characters.
Enrique Valderrama highlighted that this time it is “the first time that an international professional league is heldso we are going with everything and put the name of Chihuahua on high “.
Where will they play, and how many teams will there be?
At startup three teams based in Texas are contemplated (Dallas, El Paso and one city to be confirmed), and three more in Mexicowhere cancun (Sharks), Guadalajara (Tequileros from Jalisco) and Chihuahua (Rarámuris) are the venues selected for the start in 2024.
“We have thought start in june next year, in 2024, and the idea of this is to create a new league that is international, that is a true union between the United States and Mexico in terms of American football. We have three teams in the state of Texas and we will have three teams in Mexico, one of them in Chihuahua, another in Guadalajara and another of them in Cancun,” said Bladé.
Meanwhile, Mauricio Villanueva stressed that Los Tequileros are going to remodel their stadium and are going to deepen a flag football league and “work hard on projects that are part of this organization and American football.”
What kind of players will participate?
IFA players must participate in different tryouts for coaches and managers to review their characteristics and talent, to later select them in the drafts that are planned prior to the start of the season.
Added to this, Bladé reported that: “we plan to do another tryout in January and at the same time an additional draft so that the owners of the teams have the possibility of being able to draft players who end their eligibility in Onefa this November ”.
He operations staff is composed of John Jenkins, Hal Mumme, Noel Mazzone, Frank Gonzalez, and Michael Lewis; who will carry out at least the free agent tryouts that are planned, as well as the draft scheduled for next December in Mexico City.
“In all my years of coaching, one of the main things I have learned is that the community has to participate, it is a really important aspect and our vision for this league is also to add to the community through academies where we can teach the fundamentals and the most basic techniques to the little ones, perhaps starting at the age of five, founding franchises and growing a generation of great professional football players who appreciate the game and know the fundamental techniques to apply them and it would be a true honor for me to be able to achieve it ”, Mumme deepened.
The IFA is already in talks with various international federations for the hiring of players and it was also revealed that IFA Operations will run several sports clinics during the summer, in conjunction with circuit coaches, in Mexico and the United States.
“There are going to be 53 players and seven players on the practice squad. The only limitation that we are going to have is that they can have a maximum of 20 players from the United States and the rest can be players of any nationality, that is the only limit we are having,” added the commissioner.
Finally, one aspect to note is that the League has its sights on making its first All-Star at the Azteca Stadium, a high-level venue that has hosted NFL games on several occasions. For this, Bladé reported that they are in talks on the subject.
