# International Football Alliance

The International Football Alliance (IFA) is a professional, outdoor, 11-man American football summer minor league that will operate internationally in both Mexico and the United States.
The IFA's inaugural season is set to begin play in June 2025 with 6 teams - 1 team in Mexico and 5 teams in the United States (postponed from 2024).

## Premise

The IFA's aim is to "deliver the highest level of American football," and "build a unified and solid American football ecosystem in Mexico," while the league mission statement reads: "The International Football Alliance mission is bridging the gap in international professional football by delivering the highest level of American Football within the locations of Mexico and the United States, implementing NFL based standard rules of play, and creating an international alliance. Together with our team ownership, teams, players, and fans, we will work to build a unified and solid football ecosystem to grow American football in Mexico".

## History

The IFA was announced on January 25, 2023, in a press conference held by commissioner Juan Manuel Bladé. Bladé revealed that the league will consist of 6 teams—3 in Mexico and 3 in the United States. It was later revealed that 4 of them are derived from the now-defunct Fútbol Americano de México league (Guadalajara Tequileros, Chihuahua Rebellion, Cancun Sharks and Pioneros de Querétaro who moved to Dallas and were named "Dallas Pioneros"). Dallas was the only American city announced, although the commissioner mentioned a potential additional team in El Paso. In August 2023, ESPN reported that San Diego will be the sixth location, and that Art Briles and Noel Mazzone were the first coaches to be assigned to a team (Dallas Pioneers and Tequileros de Jalisco, respectively) while the league also hired Nick Rolovich and Hal Mumme. In October 2023, El Paso, Texas, was removed from the official website. On November 29, 2023, the league announced Las Vegas as its second US location after the Las Vegas Kings joined from the American Indoor Football Alliance. On December 19, 2023 the league announced its sixth team - the Gulf Coast Tarpons, but a month later the team was removed from the league website, while adding Mexico City as "targeted Location".
The league announced tryouts for its first season in San Diego, California (July 29, 2023); Melissa, Texas (August 20, 2023); Riviera Beach, Florida (September 9, 2023); Cincinnati, Ohio (October 7, 2023); Fort Lauderdale, Florida (October 21, 2023); Atlanta, Georgia (November 11, 2023); and internationally, in Cologne, Germany, on December 10, 2023 (moved from Birmingham, England). The IFA Mexico Combine was held on December 3, 2023, in Mexico City, at Patriots Field (was open to all Mexican nationals).
In January, 2024 the league announced their plans to push the inaugural season to 2025, after securing only 5 teams for 2024. The IFA also announced 4 more teams for 2025 in Tampa Bay, Florida (Tampa Bay Tornadoes), Huntsville, Alabama (Alabama Beavers), Portland, Oregon (under the name PDX) and Louisiana (Gulf Coast Tarpons), while the later 2 would be removed from the website on later date. In June, 2024 San Antonio was announced as the league eighth team. Las Vegas withdrew from the league in October, 2024 and began pursuing an Arena Football One franchise. On October 25, 2024, after months of speculations, the IFA announced the 6 teams to be playing the 2025 season: Alabama, Baltimore, Dallas, San Antonio, Tampa and Chihuahua. Five days later, a seventh team named the Ohio Valley Ironmen was added, without mentioning where the team will play.
Both the Baltimore Lightning and the IFA issued separate statements in early January 2025 mutually announcing the Lightning were out of the IFA, but differed on who initiated; the IFA stated that the teams had voted the Lightning out of the league, while the Lightning stated it had left voluntarily. One month later, Baltimore Lightning owner Will Hanna sued the IFA and owner Jason Adams seeking, among other things, an injunction against the league and accusing Adams of defrauding other franchises, including those that had departed or folded prior to the season, with Adams responding that it was the Lightning who were defrauding the leagues in which it was a member and that the suit had no merit.
On February 25th, United States District Judge Russell denied Mr. Hanna's Motion for Preliminary Injunction against the IFA.

## Teams

The IFA has announced 6 founding member cities, 4 of which were derived from the now-defunct Fútbol Americano de México league (with the Pioneros relocating to Dallas), one "El Paso team" and additional unspecified US-based team. Commissioner Juan Manuel Bladé Cavazos stated the IFA would like to have a team in Mexico City upon procurement of a suitable ownership group. Cavazos further stated the plan is to have 10 teams by 2025, split between the 2 countries, while California and Florida are states with prospective member cities.
The number and location of teams changed multiple times, which the IFA attributed to problems with finding "viable ownership;" the six teams were eventually finalized by early January, with future teams (including an Arkansas team announced in February) not beginning play until 2026.

### Current teams

| Team | City | Stadium | Capacity | Coach |
| Mexico |||||
| Chihuahua Rebelión | Juárez City, Chihuahua | Estadio Olímpico Universitario | 22,000 | Mauricio Balderrama |
| United States |||||
| Alabama Beavers | Huntsville, Alabama | Joe W. Davis Stadium | 6,000 | |
| Ohio Valley Ironmen | Wheeling, West Virginia | Wheeling Island Stadium | 12,220 | Manny Matsakis |
| San Antonio Caballeros | San Antonio, Texas | Gayle and Tom Benson Stadium | 6,000 | Hal Mumme |
| Tampa Tornadoes | Tampa, Florida | Leto High School | 5,000 | Stevie Thomas |
| Texas Pioneros | Georgetown, Texas | Bernard Birkelbach Field | 12,442 | Art Briles |

#### Expansion teams

Prospective International Football Alliance teams :
| Team | Location | Stadium | Capacity | Founded | Joined | Head coach |
| Arkansas Storm | Little Rock, Arkansas | | | 2025 | 2026 | Ron Calcagni |

## Players

Each team will carry a 53-man roster (40 active on game day) and seven players on the practice squad, with a maximum of 20 American players (similar to the Canadian Football League), with a goal of attracting international players. The players will be selected after participating in IFA-organized combine tryouts. Each team must carry two quarterbacks on the active roster and one on the practice squad. Players with dual citizenship (United States + 1 country) may be submitted against either the 20 American player cap or the 33 International player cap (per team). For the 2025 season, each team will carry 53 man roster with a minimum of 5 international players.

### Compensation

Salaries were first reported as "similar" to the ELF, XFL, and USFL. The league later announced that "player pay will be determined per team, with league standards are $400–$1500 per game," but the league would later stated that all players will get paid $400 per game, while only active QB's making $1500 per game. During training camp the players will make $100 per-week, plus room and board.

### Draft

The league announced that the Inaugural Draft will be held March 21- 22nd, 2025 in Huntsville, Alabama, and will consist of eight rounds total, with rounds 1-3 focused solely only on International and Dual Citizens, while rounds 4-8 will focus on United States-born citizens. Th draft pool will include recent college graduates, professional players who received an invite after league tryout and players with experience in other professional football leagues.

## Coaches

In August 2023, ESPN reported that the IFA hired former Baylor coach Art Briles as the head coach of Dallas Pioneers and the league confirmed that report later that day. The same report also mentioned that Noel Mazzone will coach Tequileros de Jalisco, while Nick Rolovich will coach one of the American teams and Hal Mumme will coach one of the Mexican teams. Rolovich later signed with the XFL's Seattle Sea Dragons, but was let go amid the XFL-USFL merger, and was interviewed for the IFA Portland position. On January 19, 2024 Adam Rita was interview for the Cancun Sharks head coaching position. In January, 2024 Noel Mazzone was announced as the Head Coach for IFA Portland. In June, 2024 Hal Mumme was announced as the head coach for IFA San Antonio. In August 2024, Eric Marty announced he had accepted the head coaching position of a theretofore-unannounced IFA member, the Baltimore Lightning of Baltimore, Maryland, which had played the 2023 season in the Gridiron Developmental Football League. In late October, 2024 Manny Matsakis was announced as the General Manager and Head Coach of the newly joined Ohio Valley Ironmen.

## Season structure

As of October 2024, the league has released schedule information indicating the season will kickoff on May 31, 2025, with the regular season concluding on August 2, 2025. The postseason will consist of two semi-final matchups between the top two ranked teams in each division, scheduled for August 9, 2025, and the IFA Championship will be held on August 16, 2025. Locations for the postseason are to be determined.
All games are scheduled for Saturday evenings at either 6 pm or 7 pm local time. All teams will play 4 home games and 4 away games, and all teams will have at least one bye week (the Alabama Beavers and the Tampa Tornadoes will have two bye weeks during the regular season). Venues and times are still to be confirmed for some matchups.
Information is still pending from the league on the names of the divisions and the division alignments amongst the 6 teams for the 2025 season.

## Media

The IFA has secured non-exclusive broadcast agreements with multiple outlets prior to its 2025 launch.
In September they announced that league games will be available in the US through Roku an Tubi. In January 2024 the IFA announced they reached broadcast agreement with Right Now TV for over-the-air and streaming broadcasts. On October 11, 2024 the league announced streaming partnership with Shawne Merriman's Lights Out Sports. In March 2025, the league announced additional agreements with Unbeaten Sports, a free ad-supported streaming television channel, and Inverleigh, an Australian production company, with the league stating that it would also be streaming games on its YouTube channel.