Football Canada is the

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ge ...

for

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History Hist ...

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

in Canada headquartered in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Ontario. Football Canada focuses primarily its own Canadian form of the sport, and is currently the world's only national governing body for

Canadian football Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area (e ...

. The governing body is also Canada's representative member of the

International Federation of American Football The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) is the international governing body of gridiron associations. The IFAF oversees the IFAF World Championship of American Football, which is held every four years. The IFAF became a pro ...

(IFAF), the world's governing body for

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

. In this capacity, it organizes the Canadian men's national football team which competes in IFAF competitions using American rules.

History

1880–1955, Canadian Rugby Union

The organization, which is now known as Football Canada, was founded on June 12, 1880, as the Canadian Rugby Football Union, revived on February 7, 1884, and re-organized as the Canadian Rugby Union on December 19, 1891. The CRU was founded to govern a sport which at the time had rules similar to the

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

being played in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Nor ...

. In 1909,

Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl Grey, (28 November 185129 August 1917) was a British peer and politician who served as Governor General of Canada 1904–1911, the ninth since Canadian Confederation. He was a radical Liberal aristocrat and a ...

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...

, donated a trophy to the CRU to be awarded for the Rugby Football Championship of Canada. This trophy became known as the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

. Even by this time, however, the rules being played in Canada were vastly different from the rules used in countries that were part of the

International Rugby Board World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

(IRB). In the years that followed, the CRU made numerous rule changes that resulted in a game reasonably similar to the American one but unrecognizable to a rugby union enthusiast. In the early-1910s, CRU annual discussions dealing with rules changes due to the influence

. The CRU elected

W. A. Hewitt William Abraham Hewitt (May 15, 1875September 8, 1966) was a Canadian sports executive and journalist, also widely known as Billy Hewitt. He was secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1903 to 1966, and sports editor of the ''T ...

president for the 1915 season. He appointed a commission to establish uniforms rules of play at different levels including collegiate and senior. He approached multiple football coaches and sought feedback on best ways to implement standard playing rules. After the CRU did not operate from 1916 to 1918 due to World War I, Hewitt returned as president for the 1919 season. Due to disagreements on playing rules in Western Canada, lack of interest in Eastern Canada, and students prioritizing studies instead of intercollegiate sports; national playoffs were not held in 1919. Despite the divergence, the sport continued to be referred to as ''rugby'' for many years. The CRU did not change its name despite the obvious confusion (rugby union was known as ''English rugby'' in Canada). By the 1940s, however, another development was to cause further changes to the CRU's mandate. It was now clear that two of its member leagues, the

Interprovincial Rugby Football Union The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League, its counterpart being the West Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues. T ...

Eastern Canada Eastern Canada (also the Eastern provinces or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of the Hudson Bay/Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newfoundland and Labrador, ...

and the

Western Interprovincial Football Union The West Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), its counterpart being the East Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the West Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leag ...

in the West were far more competitive than other circuits.

1956–1967, shift to amateur governance

By the 1950s, the two major unions had become openly professional, and in 1956 formed the Canadian Football Council (CFC) as an umbrella organization. In 1958, the CFC seceded from the CRU and became the Canadian Football League, which was solely awarded the Grey Cup (though the amateurs had effectively been locked out since 1954). During the CFL's Grey Cup meetings in November

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

, the CRU transferred its ownership of the Grey Cup to a CFL trusteeship. In exchange, the CRU received $50,000 per year to assist the development of amateur football. As an organization with no direct jurisdiction over the professional clubs and having become a distinct sport from

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

by this time, the CRU changed its name to the Canadian Amateur Football Association (CAFA) in 1967. The CAFA changed its name again to Football Canada in 1986. In French, its name had long been Football Canada.

Provincial members

* British Columbia Provincial Football Association * Football Alberta * Football Saskatchewan * Football Manitoba * Ontario Football Alliance * Football Quebec * Football New Brunswick * Football Prince Edward Island * Football Newfoundland and Labrador * Football Nova Scotia

Associate members

* Canadian Football League * Canadian Football Officials Association * U Sports * Canadian Junior Football League

National championships

* Football Canada Cup * Flag Football National Championships * 6 Nations Challenge * Women's Challenge Cup

National teams

Men's * Junior National Team * Senior Flag Football National Team Women's * Women's National Team * Senior Flag Football National Team Former national teams * Senior National Men's Team

International Bowl series

First played in 2014, the annual International Bowl series is a collaboration between Football Canada and USA Football featuring a series of exhibition games between the rival football nations in Texas in January and February. The event built on the previous

International Bowl The International Bowl was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) collegiate American football bowl game played in Toronto from 2007 through 2010. During its run, it was the only post-season bowl game played outside the United State ...

(2010 – 2013) format of Team USA vs. Team World. Canada's under-18 team for the International Bowl is selected from the top players and coaches at the prior summer's Football Canada Cup.

National Coaching Certification Program

Football Canada offers coaches training through the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) for flag, touch and tackle football. NCCP streams * Community Sport * Competition-Introduction * Competition-Development

Safe Contact

As part of its NCCP program, Football Canada's Safe Contact module teaches safe contact tackling and blocking as well as concussion education. In 2014, the organization partnered with the CFL to further refine the program.http://SafeContact.ca

Champions prior to 1909

These are the CRU champions before the dedication of the Grey Cup. * 1892 – Osgoode Hall (Ontario) defeated Montreal (Quebec) * 1893 – Queen's University (Ontario) defeated Montreal (Quebec) * 1894 – Ottawa University (Quebec) defeated Queen's University (Ontario) * 1895 – Toronto University (Ontario) defeated Montreal (Quebec) * 1896 – Ottawa University (Quebec) defeated Toronto University (Ontario) * 1897 – Ottawa University (Quebec) defeated Hamilton (Ontario) * 1898 – Ottawa (Ontario) defeated Toronto University (Intercollegiate), Ottawa (Ontario) defeated Ottawa University (Quebec) * 1899 – No game. * 1900 – Ottawa (Ontario) defeated Brockville (Quebec) * 1901 – Ottawa University (Quebec) defeated Argonauts (Ontario) * 1902 – Ottawa (Ontario) defeated Ottawa University (Quebec) * 1903 – No game. * 1904 – No game. * 1905 – Toronto University (Intercollegiate) defeated Ottawa (Quebec) * 1906 – Hamilton (Ontario) defeated McGill University (Intercollegiate) * 1907 – Montreal (Interprovincial) defeated Peterborough (Ontario) * 1908 – Hamilton (Interprovincial) defeated Toronto University (Intercollegiate) The 1909 game was the first game for the Grey Cup. See the article ' List of Grey Cup champions' for the complete Grey Cup listing. Source: Ottawa Citizen, November 28, 1910, page 8.

References

External links

* {{Sports governing bodies of Canada Canadian football Sports governing bodies in Canada Sports governing bodies by sport Sports organizations established in 1880