It was called Vision28. A name that may have been mistaken for a classified special-ops task force, was instead the group brainstorming, masterminding and securing Flag football's debut at the Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Pierre Trochet recalls his childhood growing up in France, citing the time his father ordered a cassette tape of a recent NFL game - only for it to arrive two weeks later. His relationship with football had felt on delay, as it would for much of the world; the shortage of social media likely aided the challenge of swerving spoilers.
He wished to play football, but discovered there were no youth teams and no equipment available to him. Unknowingly, he began to play flag by simply tossing a ball around in a no-contact, just-for-fun setting.
These days, he is the International Federation of American Football president instrumental to flag football earning its historic inclusion at LA 2028.
IFAF meets IMF. For it would seem both specialise in what might have felt like an impossible mission. Two special-ops cohorts in their own right. In which case, does that make Trochet... the Tom Cruise of football?
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Phoebe Schecter shows her dance moves at the NFL Celebrity Flag Football!
Team GB European champion and Sky Sports NFL's very own Phoebe Schecter shows off her dance moves after scoring a touchdown at the NFL Celebrity Flag Football game at the Copper Box
"You have the chance right now by watching football, you love everything about football and its superstars, but now you can translate that in your school with your friend, you can translate it in your club with your teammates, in the national team.
"Now all of a sudden you can dream about becoming an Olympian. It's about creating opportunity and all of that gathered together not just in traditional country.
"In Samoa we entered an IFAF competition for the first time, we are going to Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Uganda. We are obviously in all the NFL market, but also way, way beyond.
"It's a global phenomenon."
Flag Football facts
Played by 20 million athletes from more than 100 countries
Played by over 3.4 million young people globally
Set to make Olympic debut at 2028 LA Games
Flag programmes present in 15 countries
Played in over 1,000 schools in the UK
Olympic history
Flag will make its bow on the Olympic stage in 2028 as the culmination of a fierce campaign to amplify one of the most inclusive, fastest-growing and most accessible sports on the planet. It comes in fitting alignment with the NFL's own unprecedented global expansion, taking America's game to new territories and new demographics, whether it be from a viewing or playing perspective.
It is fast, it is intricate, it is creative, it is a concoction of athleticism and savvy play-design, it is open to all, anywhere and everywhere. The Olympics await as another deserved milestone opportunity to reach the next tier of prominence, with LA evidently keen to maximise its spotlight.
Gabriela Bankhardt participates in drills with kids during the Chiefs NFL Flag clinic in Sao Paulo
Image: Brazil flag captain Gabriela Bankhardt participates in drills with kids during the Chiefs NFL Flag clinic in Sao Paulo
"People can expect a great show," says Trochet. "It's going to be amazing. We have a great stadium that is in the heart of the games, close to the historic Coliseum with the Exposition Park Stadium.
"We have prime-time scheduling with a dedicated slot, kind of Friday Night Lights style and Saturday big time. We have an exceptional set up. The broadcast is specially aligned to give a great show."
The NFL announced earlier this year that its players will be cleared to compete at the Olympics, with each team permitted to send one player in addition to an international player if designated. This has incited excitement over the prospect of football's very own version of the 1992 USA basketball Dream Team, which saw the likes of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Scottie Poppen guide their nation to gold.
Lamar Jackson for quarterback, anybody?
Diana Flores looms as one of the marquee names to watch in the women's competition after leading Mexico to gold with victories over the USA at both the 2022 and 2025 World Games, while Ashlea Klam has emerged as one of the game's rising superstars since joining the US team aged 19. Team GB's women have also established themselves as a leading force on the global stage with back-to-back European Championship titles behind the likes of Emily Kemp, Jess Allen, Jochebed Frimpong and Sky Sports NFL's own Phoebe Schecter.
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"On the women's side we have great rivalries coming in, with USA, Mexico, Canada, Panama and so on, if they qualify of course, in the women's side.
"And then of course on the men's section, the opportunity to see NFL players on the field. It brings a Barcelona Dream Team feeling. And that put us in a position to really have the opportunity to be the hot ticket in the game, you don't want to miss that."
'You can believe you are Lamar Jackson'
The IFAF is the global governing body for both tackle and flag football, made up of 79 member nations across the world since its formation in 1998. It was officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee in 2013, before taking Flag football to The World Games for the first time in Birmingham, Alabama in 2022.
"When the time came to demonstrate the power of Flag at the World Games in 2022 it showed how easy it is to include Flag football in multi-sport events and creating new opportunities for young girls and young boys to pick up the game without the logistics and infrastructure of tackle football," said Trochet. "Talking about equipment, talking about the rules, talking about the numbers.
"It's so easy to pick up a game, throw the ball in your backyard and believe you are Lamar Jackson throwing to Travis Kelce."
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Behold the beginning of Vision 28 and the soon-to-be-fulfilled dream of reaching the Los Angeles Olympics.
"I think this is a consequence of the organic, amazing growth that the sport was picking up, that started to pick up a few years ago and keeps on picking up right now without slowing down actually," he continued.
"It is appealing to an entire new generation of viewers and participants. That's how the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 28 would be the first one that is oriented for the millennials and that will definitely be going forward to the next generation, to the Gen Z and looking at how they consume sports and everything."
Flag's accelerating growth was evidenced this year through the staging of the European Championships in Paris and the inaugural IFAF Africa Flag Continental Championships in Cairo, Egypt, where Nigeria's men and women achieved the double.
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"We could never organise a competition in Africa because it was complicated in terms of infrastructures and equipment," explains Trochet.
"It was an amazing event, Nigeria will now take part in the World Championship in Dusseldorf and all of a sudden for the first time you have Flag football at the elite level for IFAF in every continent."
Los Angeles is the priority. But Trochet is already looking ahead.
"That all of that comes together to start our journey in 2028 and looking forward for the rest and definitely looking at 2032 in Brisbane as the next step of our journey."
Inspiring the next generation
At the heart of Flag football's ambitions and success has been greater opportunity for female athletes who might have previously felt sidelined.
"Tackle football has been played on both genders within IFAF but we have to own the fact that tackle football was male-dominated and ultimately because you didn't have any pathway," said Trochet.
"In college, being a female college student under scholarship, tackle football was impossible. Being an NFL athlete as a female was impossible, so out of a sudden with this Olympic inclusion you open a new pathway which means you can become an Olympian.
"It's an entire new opportunity for young women all over the world to pick up a football. Because they want to play football, everybody wants to play football, now there is a pathway, there's an opportunity and lead-up to represent your country and be an Olympian.
(Left to right) Jacqui Oatley, Phoebe Schecter, Jacquelyn Dahl, Afia Law, Jochebed Frimpong (Credit: NFL)
Image: (Left to right) Jacqui Oatley, Phoebe Schecter, Jacquelyn Dahl, Afia Law, Jochebed Frimpong participating at a NFL Women in American Football event at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (Credit: NFL)
Its accessibility and set-up has levelled the playing field, with further goals to take the game into college.
"Beyond that, hopefully there will be scholarships for girls in NCAA very soon," he added. "The growth creates opportunity, opportunity inspires more, generates more of the next generation and the next generation feeds the pipe.
"I think we watch on the documentation in the the UK, 50 per cent of the participation in terms of growth come from young women, young girls. "We play U15, U17, boys and girls, it doesn't matter where you come from or what gender you are. It's absolutely mind-blowing."
For all it had achieved and for the height of its ceiling for development and impact, Flag football at the Olympics just made sense.
"It's about how powerful and inspiring it is, but also what kind of product, what kind of amazing product you can put on the field," said Trochet. "Of course it is tough, it is a challenge, and we have great partners in that adventure, of course friends from the NFL, but also now attention from media, from sponsors.
"And it already leads me to believe that we want to be in Brisbane 2032."
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Trochet had felt the need to go and watch some kids playing football in his residing country of Austria following Flag football's Olympic confirmation in October 2023. He found himself speaking to the management of a local team, who informed him they did not yet have a flag programme in place.
He would later take some footballs and some flags to a local school...
"Three years later almost, they have two squads, boys and girls, with 40 kids playing twice a week and going into the Austrian Championship," he says.
"That's the power of this sport in three years. I'm very confident about where we'll be in 10."
Flag is here to stay.
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"I think that female flag football players are going to be the icons of LA 2028, it's happening."
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