Sheffield Giant’s Marta Mathews will travel to Germany with the rest of the Great Britain women’s team for the IFAF Flag Football World Championships this week.

The championships will see Great Britain women compete against fifteen other nations to be crowned world champions for the first time in their history.

On getting ready to compete at the World Championships, Marta Mathews said: “I go through different states; we go from, like, a nervous, more anxious state at times, which, to be honest, doesn't happen too often. I learned last year that you only know your preparation has worked after putting it into practice in the tournaments. But it does still exist because if you care, you tend to get a level of anxiety.”

“To excitement and a thrill that we get to showcase our skills and put on a show and do what we've trained so long to do. It's exciting because we have a really good team, like a really, really good team, and so it's just never been better. The culture's never been better. So, it's an awesome place to be.”

Great Britain women will compete in Group C of the women’s competition alongside Austria, France and China, with the group stage matches set to take place on 13th and 14th August.

The highlight of Group C will be the 2025 European Flag Football Championship final rematch between Great Britain and Austria, which saw Great Britain take the title with a 34-33 overtime win.

In the group stage matches at the World Championships, Mathews said: “I think it's very hard to go and play a team that you have beaten previously, whether it's a team like France, where you've always beaten them. Or whether it's a team like Austria, where it's gone back and forth. Or China, where you've beaten them the last time you've played. But in all honesty, we prepare all year for these teams.”

“We prepare all year to play any opponent, and then when we get to the tournament, our coaching staff and our scout staff do a really good job of prepping us based on what they see. So it's a tough group, but … if and when we get out of this group, we’ll be prepared for whatever opponent is next because all the other opponents are probably equally or somewhere around the level of the opponent we have in our group. So we'll be very, very in prep for it.”

The last World Championships, which were held in Finland in 2024, saw Great Britain make history as they made their first appearance at the championships, which was rounded off by a seventh-place finish.

Great Britain, who are ranked 3rd in the world behind only Mexico and the United States of America, have since continued to impress on the international stage after winning the European title in both the 2023 and 2025 editions of the championships.

On being ranked third in the world after their recent successes, Mathews said: “Being ranked third is cool. I think being ranked first would be cooler, and I think we are deserving of that with the quality that I've seen this year with the team. And I'm hoping we're able to prove that on the world stage next week.”

“But at the end of the day, rankings are somewhat subjective, and it's about what you do in the next tournament. And rankings are based on what you did in the last tournament. So for us, or at least for me, it's cool, but it's not really that important. What's more important is our performance in the upcoming tournament.”

The World Championships will also give Great Britain another opportunity to secure the first LA28 Flag Football qualification spots at this year’s events.

Flag Football will make its Summer Olympics debut at the 2028 games, with two events set to feature at the multi-sport event, one for men and one for women.

On competing for Olympic qualification and the future of flag football, Mathews said: “I think it's really awesome. I don't think it hits you, and it probably won't hit for a while; that's what we're competing for. Because I think most of us can say that we didn't grow up playing flag, and if we did, we never thought that it would take us to the Olympics or kind of anywhere near that kind of stage. So it's hard to process that and really understand what it is and what it means. But it's still an awesome opportunity, and I and everyone else are super excited to have it and to go get it.”

“I would say football is cool, rugby is okay, but Flag is where it's at speaking from experience. And it's always worth giving another sport a try. I randomly tried Flag, and it's brought me on this really cool, amazing journey. So it's always worth giving something a go, seeing if you like it and then pursuing it to whatever level it can take you. And of course I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. I try and persuade everyone to come and play flag because it's really cool, and there are so many parts to it so many aspects to it that you can get enjoyment out of it."

The IFAF Flag Football World Championships will take place in Düsseldorf, Germany, between 13th and 16th August.

The men’s and women’s IFAF Flag Football World Championships semi-finals (all of which will be played on Saturday 15th) and the gold and bronze medal matches (all of which will be played on Sunday 16th) will be ‘free to watch on DAZN’.