AFF World Championship

  

The AFF World Championship is an annual American football competition organized by the American Football Federation (AFF) and is heavily contested by top-ranking gridiron football clubs in North America, deciding the competition winners through three single-elimination rounds totaling eight games. The winner of the final round is proclaimed the current world champion of the sport. It is one of the most prestigious tournaments in North America and the most prestigious club competition in American football, played by the national league champion and runners-up of their respective national associations, to represent their nation in the bracket. The conference begins in early March with the quarterfinals, followed by the semifinals the following week and the finals which are generally scheduled near the end of the month. There are currently four participating nations: Astoria, Brazoria, Sierra, and Superior.

American Football Federation World Championship

Current season, competition or edition: 2022 AFF World Championship
Formerly	Anglo-American Football League
Sport	American football
Founded	13 October 1994 (1994-10-13) Seattle, Olympia, Astoria
Inaugural season	1996
Commissioner	Joshua Winslow II
No. of teams	8
Country	Conference of American States (Astoria, Brazoria, Sierra, Superior)
Headquarters	Porciúncula, Gold Coast, K.S.
Most recent champion(s)	Green Bay Packers (4th title)
Most titles	Green Bay Packers (4 titles)
TV partner(s)	Anglo-American Broadcasting Union members ABN UBC RTB RBS SBC International RFI NHK BBC ITV OTU

In its present format, the world championship begins with a preliminary round featuring practice games and contests in anticipation for the primary competition. The participating teams are limited to two from each participating member state, with the tournament's bracket being expanded or restricted dependent upon affiliate leagues. Currently, eight teams play each other in single elimination over three weeks beginning with the quarterfinals, which features four games. The four surviving teams play in the semifinals, with the winners proceeding to the cumulative title match while the runners-up participate in a play-off game. The winning team of the title match is proclaimed the world champions of the sport, receive the Cordillera trophy, and are awarded prize money upwards of $40,000,000 KSD.

Superian clubs have the highest number of victories (10 wins), followed by Brazoria (7 wins), Sierra (6 wins), and Astoria (4 wins). Superior has the largest number of winning teams, with six clubs having won the title. The competition has been won by 19 clubs, five of which have won it more than once, and one whom successfully defended their title. The Green Bay Packers is the most successful club in the tournament's history, having won it 4 times since the introduction of the tournament. The Green Bay Packers are the current world champions, having beaten the Porciúncula Falcons 39–27 in the 2022 final.

History

Independent leagues and precursors

Gridiron football had its origin in various clubs representing their colleges and universities, with major development in the 1910s and 1920s leading to the sport being recognized at the national level in North America. The oldest surviving football institution, the Astorian American Football Conference (AAFC), began play in 1945 with the introduction of the Murdock system, which stringed together loose game schedules into a single format, dedicating general gameplay to later in the year as well as establishing the title of national champion.

Astoria

Gerald Murdock (pictured), an Astorian gridiron football player and former coach, was one of the principle founders of the AAFC, with his tenure as president lasting more than two decades.

Rugby football began to be played in Astoria in the 1870s during its early independence, and many of the first Astorian football teams played under the auspices of the Astorian Rugby Football League (ARFL), founded in 1894. The ARFL was reorganized as the Astorian Rugby Union (ARU) in 1898, and served as an umbrella organization for several provincial and regional unions. To award the winning team of the league, it became ceremonial during the late 20th century to host the winners in the Presidential Mansion in addition to awarding them the Yukon Cup, given to the founding pioneers of the nation by members of the House of Colombia during the War of Contingency. By that time, the sport as played in Astoria had diverged from its rugby origins with the introduction of the Turnslide rules, and started to become more similar to the conventional, North American game.

For much of the early part of the 20th century, the game was contested by interprovincial leagues, or unions. In 1907, several of the stronger senior clubs in Olympia and Nez Perce formed the National Rugby Football Union (NRFU or Big Five). It took almost 20 years for another elite interprovincial western union to emerge, when in 1929 the stronger senior clubs in Cascadia, Portland and Vancouver adopted the new format and formed the Western Canadian Football Union (WCFU). From the 1930s to the early 1940s, the NRFU and WIFU gradually evolved from amateur to professional leagues, with amateur teams being no longer competitive for the Yukon Cup beginning in the 1941 season.

In 1944, the NRFU and WCFU formed a new umbrella organization, the Astorian American Football Conference (AAFC), a bureaucracy of club owners under the leadership of Gerald Murdock, a veteran player of the sport and a former head coach of Seattle Stallions. Murdock would establish a strict, week-based schedule beginning in November and ending in January over the course of 12 weeks, featuring 11 games culminating in the national title game, the Pro Bowl, played between the leading teams of each division, which was split amongst five competing teams. Known as the Murdock system or model, it would revolutionize the sports format and broadcasting, with games being featured in prime time slots for both radio and television, with the system being adopted internationally by various countries in North and South America to form individual, national American football leagues. The model is currently in use by all participating members of the AFF.

Sierra

After years of disorganized team schedules, controversies regarding the sport's safety, and the end of Approbatio, the National American Football Assocation of Sierra (NAFAS) would begin play on 14 April 1929, featuring an 8 team league that would later be expanded to thirteen by 1942. Seasons for the sport varied with franchises being added, relocated, or dissolved entirely during the Antebellum era, with executive members of the Commission proposing a 13-week schedule in the spring of 1945 to be effective upon the start of the 1948 season, though a string of strikes led by players of multiple teams would lead to the schedule being bent or changed entirely for each respective season. Despite these setbacks, by the 1951 season the schedule would be played entirely for the first time, with broadcasting networks reporting some of the highest watch-times recorded at the time throughout the constituencies of the kingdom. The reporting of these profits would lead to the rise of other, localized football leagues being organized during this time, the largest of which being the Pacific American Football League (PAFL), which began play in October 1952.

The PAFL would capitalize on markets long-forgotten to the sport, namely Bernheim, or considerably distant from other team host-cities, such as St. George and Tucson. The most competitive market for the league would come with expansion into Grands Ballons, which closely neighbored the host-city for a NAFAS team in Porciúncula. Bickering amongst fans and commentators alike would lead to open-street brawls in the city's underbelly over which team was superior, and an inter-province division would form between both respective teams. By 1955, the city of New Rotterdam would become the latest member of the PAFL expansion, and was the last team to be organized by the league before financial hardship lead to a dramatic decline in available players in addition to raising player's salaries. While NAFAS had been affected considerably, the PAFL would come to the verge of bankruptcy only a year later. In 1958, the PAFL would announce a merger with NAFAS, restructuring the league after the Murdock system to form the Sierran American Football League (SAFL), which began play in the fall of 1959.

The SAFL has since become one of the most popular and profitable sport's associations in the world.

Format

Prizes

Media coverage

See also: Anglo-American Broadcasting Union

One of the broadcasting stations used during the 2019 AFF World Championship.

The AFF World Championship is one of the most-watched annual sporting events in the world, with viewership overwhelmingly in members of the Conference of American States. The only other annual event that gathers more viewers is the FIFA World Cup. For many years, the AFF as a whole has possessed a large North American and global television viewership, and it is often the most-watched North American-based television program annually. In addition to the games each receiving a television ranking higher than 30, on average, more than 60 million people from North America alone are tuned into the tournament at any given moment. The Gold Coast-based newspaper firm The Porciúncula Times measured the global audience for the 2010 AFF World Championship, held in Sierra, at 82 million people, with nearly 97 percent of that figure being viewers in North America, which meant roughly two-and-a-half million people outside North America watched the championship that year, with Anglo-American Broadcasting Union-affiliated (AABU) networks broadcasting overseas in France and Japan, amongst others.

The 2010 AFF World Championship holds the record for average number of NA viewers, with 102.4 million, making the game the most-viewed television broadcast of any kind in American history (excluding the United Commonwealth). The halftime show set a record with 112.1 million viewers tuning in. In recent years, the 2017 Final round would reportedly peaked at 118.5 million viewers. The game set a record for total viewers for the third time in six years. Famous AFF-host commercials include the introduction of Webbox in the late 1990s, the various pro and anti-2004 invasion of Syria infomercials, and the VERS "Game On" campaign during the eighth video game console generation. As the television ratings of AFF tournament have steadily increased over the years, commercial prices have also increased, with advertisers paying upwards of $8 million for a thirty-second spot during the quarterly round of the 2022 tournament. However, it is believed a minority of the audience reportedly tunes into the tournament solely to view commercials. In 2016, the AABU reported that nearly 51 percent of AFF viewers tune in part because of the commercials, though those still watching for the game itself was averaged at 99 percent.

Since 1999, games have been centered on Sundays, with the finals starting at 6:09 and 6:30 PM PST so that most of the game is played during the primetime hours on the West Coast.

List of World champions

List of AFF World Championship finalists

Year	Date	Winning team	Score	Losing team	Venue	City	Attendance
1996	29 March	Des Moines Saints (1, 1–0)	34–10	Denver Broncos (1, 0–1)	Seahawks Stadium	Seattle, Olympia, Astoria	68,740
1997	28 March	Green Bay Packers (1, 1–0)	37–7	Bernheim Bears (1, 0–1)	COG Arena	Dallas, Leon, Brazoria	65,675
1998	27 March	Portland Pioneers (1, 1–0)	14–10	Bernheim Bears (2, 0–2)	Nimbus Park	San Jose, Santa Clara, Sierra	88,725
1999	28 March	Houston Oilers (1, 1–0)	31–28	Tucson Titans (1, 0–1)	William I Stadium	Saint Anthony, Minnesota, Superior	54,147
2000	26 March	Augustus Roughriders (1, 1–0)	51–28	Houston Oilers (2, 1–1)	PGE Park	Portland, Portland, Astoria	25,218
2001	25 March	Clarke Mustangs (1, 1–0)	33–14	Seattle Seahawks (1, 0–1)	Martin Barber Stadium	Houston, San Jacinto, Brazoria	70,344
2002	31 March	Las Vegas Wildcats (1, 1–0)	24–7	Augustus Roughriders (2, 1–1)	Louis II Stadium	Porciúncula, Gold Coast, Sierra	70,100
2003	30 March	Vancouver All-Stars (1, 1–0)	42–19	Oklahoma City Chargers (1, 0–1)	Ronzani Field	Green Bay, New Hanover, Superior	71,441
2004	28 March	San Francisco City Saints (1, 1–0)	34–20	Oklahoma City Chargers (2, 0–2)	Timber Park	Victoria, Vancouver, Astoria	55,950
2005	27 March	Green Bay Packers (2, 2–0)	36–33 (OT)	Portland Pioneers (2, 1–1)	Mile High Stadium	Denver, Colorado, Brazoria	67,235
2006	26 March	Dallas Texans (1, 1–0)	45–21	Sioux City Chiefs (1, 0–1)	Infinity Stadium	San Diego, Laguna, Sierra	65,900
2007	25 March	Phoenix Eagles (1, 1–0)	17–10	Sioux City Chiefs (2, 0–2)	Arrowhead Arena	Duluth, Arrowhead, Superior	44,520
2008	30 March	St. Anthony Vikings (1, 1–0)	37–20	Portland Pioneers (3, 1–2)	Seahawks Stadium	Seattle, Olympia, Astoria	72,050
2009	29 March	Beaumont Wolves (1, 1–0)	21–6	Port Auburn Ravens (1, 0–1)	The Lone Star	Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Leon, Brazoria	15,000
2010	28 March	Phoenix Eagles (2, 2–0)	28–0	Seattle Seahawks (2, 0–2)	The Big Dome	Phoenix, Maricopa, Sierra	98,974
2011	27 March	Grands Ballons Martyrs (2, 2–0)	31–14	New Wittenburg Buffalos (1, 0–1)	Brickdome	Minnesota, Minnesota, Superior	60,000
2012	25 March	San Antonio Colts (1, 1–0)	34–20	Duluth Lumberjacks (1, 0–1)	Somh Field	Cheney, Monatoga, Astoria	10,000
2013	31 March	Green Bay Packers (3, 3–0)	17–16	San Jose Outlaws (1, 0–1)	Alamodome	San Antonio, Guadalupe, Brazoria	19,148
2014	30 March	San Jose Outlaws (2, 1–1)	39–14	Houston Oilers (3, 1–2)	The Inland Colosseum	Riverside, Inland Empire, Sierra	73,230
2015	29 March	Aurora Argonauts (1, 1–0)	30–23	San Diego Spartans (1, 0–1)	William I Stadium	Saint Anthony, Minnesota, Superior	55,597
2016	27 March	Santa Fe Saints (1, 1–0)	21–17	San Jose Outlaws (3, 1–2)	Rogers Arena	Vancouver, Vancouver, Astoria	18,422
2017	26 March	Sioux City Chiefs (3, 1–2)	34–19	San Jose Outlaws (4, 1–3)	Choctaw Stadium	Arlington, Leon, Brazoria	46,100
2018	25 March	Sioux City Chiefs (4, 2–2)	19–14	Riverside Warhawks (1, 0–1)	Overstars Center	Grands Ballons, Gold Coast, Sierra	67,320
2019	31 March	Denver Broncos (1, 1–0)	28–24	Duluth Lumberjacks (2, 0–2)	Superian Family Field	New Hamburg, Lansing, Superior	47,192
2020	29 March	Vancouver All-Stars (2, 2–0)	30–16	Denver Broncos (2, 1–1)	Memorial Stadium	Seattle, Olympia, Astoria	25,000
2021	28 March	Denver Broncos (3, 2–1)	34–13	Sioux City Chiefs (5, 2–3)	Brazoreños Field	College Station, Llano, Brazoria	104,928
2022	27 March	Green Bay Packers (4, 4–0)	39–27	Porciúncula Falcons (1, 0–1)	Rainbow Arena	Honolulu, Hawaii, Sierra	48,321
2023	26 March	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	Superior	TBA

Team records and statistics

Performances by club

Club	Win	Runners-up	Points for	Points against	Appearances	Years won	Years runner-up
Green Bay Packers	4	0	129	83	4	1997, 2005, 2013, 2022	—
Sioux City Chiefs	2	3	97	129	5	2017, 2018	2006, 2007, 2021
San Jose Outlaws	1	3	133	90	4	2014	2013, 2016, 2017
Denver Broncos	2	2	88	104	4	2019, 2021	1996, 2020
Duluth Lumberjacks	1	2	78	72	3	1996	2012, 2019
Portland Pioneers	1	2	67	83	3	1998	2005, 2008
Houston Oilers	1	2	78	113	3	1999	2000, 2014
Vancouver All-Stars	2	0	72	35	2	2003, 2020	—
Phoenix Eagles	2	0	45	10	2	2007, 2010	—
Augustus Roughriders	1	1	58	52	2	2000	2002
Clarke Mustangs	1	0	33	14	1	2001	—
Las Vegas Wildcats	1	0	24	7	1	2002	—
San Francisco City Saints	1	0	34	20	1	2004	—
Dallas Texans	1	0	45	21	1	2006	—
St. Anthony Vikings	1	0	37	20	1	2008	—
Beaumont Wolves	1	0	21	6	1	2009	—
Grands Ballons Martyrs	1	0	31	14	1	2011	—
San Antonio Colts	1	0	34	20	1	2012	—
Aurora Argonauts	1	0	30	23	1	2015	—
Bernheim Bears	0	2	17	51	2	—	1997, 1998
Oklahoma City Chargers	0	2	39	76	4	—	2003, 2004
Seattle Seahawks	0	2	14	64	2	—	2001, 2010
Tucson Titans	0	1	28	31	1	—	1999
Port Auburn Ravens	0	1	6	21	1	—	2009
New Wittenburg Buffalos	0	1	14	31	1	—	2011
San Diego Spartans	0	1	23	30	1	—	2015
Riverside Warhawks	0	1	14	19	1	—	2018
Porciúncula Falcons	0	1	27	39	1	—	2022

Performances by nation

Performances by nation

Nation	Titles	Runners-up	Total
Astoria	4	4	8
Brazoria	7	6	13
Sierra	6	9	15
Superior	10	8	18

See also

• American football