# 2015 IFAF World Championship

The 2015 IFAF World Championship was the fifth instance of the IFAF World Championship, an international American football tournament. The United States hosted the tournament. Seven teams had confirmed their participation for the tournament in Canton, Ohio.
The tournament was to be hosted by Stockholm, Sweden, with all games to be take place at the Tele2 Arena. However, on 19 December 2014, the local organizing committee announced that it had to cancel after failing to set up a sponsorship structure. USA Football then announced that the tournament would be held at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.
The United States won their third consecutive championship in their third appearance, defeating Japan 59–12 in the final. Sports Radio America internationally broadcast the gold medal game.

## Background

The 2015 World Championships in Sweden were originally scheduled to be the first ever to consist of a field of 12 national teams in World Championships. The teams were to be divided into four groups for the preliminary round. However, on 19 December 2014, the local organizing committee announced that it had to cancel after failing to set up a sponsorship structure. USA Football then announced that the tournament would be held at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. Several days later both the German and Austrian teams announced they would not be able to attend, raising the challenge of the increased financial costs of traveling to the U.S. and also questioning the choice of Canton for hosting it, due to the lack of facilities to accommodate a large number of teams. A new schedule containing only 8 teams was then announced.
The schedule in Canton originally had five rounds, with teams divided into two brackets of four teams each. The teams were seeded based on their IFAF rankings. The preliminary rounds consisted of each team playing three games: one against every other team in their bracket. The top three finishers in the higher bracket (USA, Canada, Japan, and Mexico) and the lone top finisher in the lower bracket would advance to the semifinals.
In late April, Team Canada, the defending silver medalists, announced their withdrawal from the tournament due to difficulties with sponsorship, budgeting and scheduling.
The revised final schedule included 7 teams playing 4 rounds with three games each day on July 9, 12, 15, 18. #3 seed Japan received a bye in Round 1, while #4 seed Mexico drew a bye in Round 2 after losing in the first round against Team USA.

## Qualifying

Teams with an asterisk did not attend.
| Confederation | Qualifying event | Date | Venue | Vacancies | Qualified |
| Europe | Host nation | 12 October 2011 | | 4 | Sweden* |
| Europe | 2014 European Championships | 3 June 2014 | Austria | 4 | Germany* |
| Europe | 2014 European Championships | 4 June 2014 | Austria | 4 | Austria* |
| Europe | 2014 European Championships | 7 June 2014 | Austria | 4 | France |
| Americas | 2011 IFAF World Championship | 16 July 2011 | United States | 4 | United States |
| Americas | 2011 IFAF World Championship | 16 July 2011 | United States | 4 | Canada* |
| Americas | 2011 IFAF World Championship | 16 July 2011 | United States | 4 | Mexico |
| Americas | American Qualifier Game (Panama vs Brazil) | 31 January 2015 | Panama | 4 | Brazil |
| Asia | Asian Qualifier Game (Korea vs Kuwait) | 12 April 2014 | South Korea | 2 | South Korea |
| Asia | Asian Qualifier Game (Japan vs Philippines) | 26 April 2014 | Japan | 2 | Japan |
| Oceania | Oceanian Qualifier | 3 December 2013 | | 1 | Australia |
| Africa | African Qualifier Game (Egypt vs Morocco) | 13 December 2014 | Egypt | 1 | Morocco* |
| Total | | | | 12 | |