British Colleges Sport and the British American Football Association (BAFA) are pleased to announce that the two organisations will be working together with a view to the creation of an American football competition and development programme across the Further Education sector.

"We are delighted to be working the British American Football Association" said John Hole, Chief Executive of British Colleges Sport. "The sport is continuing to grow in popularity across Great Britain and we are seeing an increasing number of enquiries from our members regarding the potential of its development for the college community."

"We look forward to establishing a development plan for the sustainable growth of the sport across the BCS membership"

 Andy Fuller, Director for Student Football at BAFA welcomed the partnership. "Today's announcement is another landmark in the development of American football in Great Britain. British Colleges Sport and its partners have a strong track record in co-ordinating and delivering high quality sporting opportunities across colleges and our close working relationship will serve to ensure that we are able to effectively map how best to design and deliver a support structure for the sector."

In the coming weeks the two organisations will launch an online registry of interest for colleges, enabling both BCS and BAFA to build a picture of interest which will underpin a series of development interventions. This work will be facilitated by IFAF, the global Governing Body for American Football.

"We are pleased to be able to support BAFA's work in this area and look forward to including the expertise which IFAF has in the development plans for college football." commented IFAF Managing Director Adam Provost.

Gary Marshall, the BAFA Chairman thanked IFAF for their support. "We are grateful for the work which IFAF have undertaken to help lay the platform for the development of our sport across British colleges. Their commitment, alongside that of our new partners at British Colleges Sport, should give people real confidence that we can build and deliver a plan which will meet the needs of the college community."

For further enquires please contact:
John Hole, CEO of British Colleges Sport c/o Simone Rooks: simonerooks@bcsport.org
Andy Fuller, BAFA Director for Student Football: andy.fuller@buafl.net