Russian American Football Championship ( rus, Чемпионат России по Aмериканскому Футболу, Chempionat Rossii po Amerikanskomu Futbolu) is the highest level of

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 ...

played in Russia, previously known as the League of American Football (LAF; rus, Лига Американского Футбола, Liga Amerikanskogo Futbola, ЛАФ). There are 11 teams in two divisions participating in the league.Ilya Kravtsov
Kaliningrad to Vladivostok: Season In Review
American Football International Since 2020 season the Eastern European Super League serves as the highest league of American football in Russia.

History

American football came into the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in late 1980s. The first official games were played in 1989 when American high school all-star teams from

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

played exhibition games against local teams, following a failed attempt to have

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

be played in Moscow (known as the

Glasnost Bowl The Glasnost Bowl was a planned attempt to stage an American college football game in Moscow, USSR at the beginning of the 1989 season. The game was named after the policy of glasnost ("openness") introduced by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 19 ...

). In the same year the very first game between Russian teams was played.Ilya Kravtsov
Hockey Pads to the FAFR: The History of American Football in Russia
American Football International In 1991, the Soviet Championship was founded. The league became the Russian Championship in 1992 as the country collapsed. The league was suspended in the turmoils of the dissolution of the USSR. The Russian Championship was founded again in 2002. The league has been growing ever since. In 2016 it was reorganized as The ''League of American Football'', LAF in short. But in 2019 the league was re-organized as Russian Championship. Since 2020 season the Eastern European Super League serves as the highest league of American football in Russia.

List of champions

References

{{Top sport leagues in Russia * National championships in Russia American football leagues in Europe Professional sports leagues in Russia