About Touch

Touch Football (otherwise known as Touch Rugby or simply Touch) was derived from the sport of Rugby League.  It started as a minimum contact training game for Rugby League players to allow them to learn and practice their game without fear of major injury. From there the training game grew in popularity and finally into a sport on its own right in 1968, ultimately leading to the formation of the National Sports Association in Australia in 1976 called the Australian Touch Football Association.

From there the sport has quickly grown and spread globally with the sport now administered globally by the Federation of International Touch, which was formed in 1985.  There are now twenty-eight (28) member nations who have National Touch Football Associations that are affiliates of FIT.  The ultimate event of the sport being the FIT World Cup, which was first held in 1999 and has been held every 4 years since.

Regionally Touch is administered by Asian Touch Football Federation, which has six (6) recognized affiliates – Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, SInapore and Thailand.

One of the best considered aspects of the sport of Touch is its broad appeal. It is played by both sexes, and in age divisions from primary school children to over-50s known as Masters. The mixed version of the game (where both male and female players are on the field at the same time) is particularly popular with social players and which marks one of the few sports that allow Men & Women to play together competitively all the way to its highest level – the World Cup.

In terms of popularity of the sport, in both Australia and New Zealand it is one of the sports which has the highest participation rates (Top 3 most played sports in both countries).

For more detailed information see:
•    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_football_(rugby_league)

Note:
•    Rugby League is a derivative of Rugby Football.  The other more popular derivative of Rugby Football is Rugby Union.