The IFA, also known as the International Football Alliance, has been an absolute disaster this summer. They started out with 6+ teams, and high hopes for their 2025 campaign spanning across Mexico and the United States.
However, the IFA saw multiple franchises drop off one by one, due to a variety of issues. From the fall of the Baltimore Lightning, to the Alabama Beavers, to the Ohio Valley Ironmen, to Hal Mumme’s San Antonio Caballeros – and Mexico’s Chihuahua Rebellion – the International Football Alliance is a mere shell of what founder Jason Adams intended it to be.
The bottom line: the IFA has been poorly run from top to bottom. United Football Media released a report earlier this year that broke down some of the key issues. Players were not taken care of, team owners were lied to, executives made poor decisions – across the board, it was a mess.
However, the IFA managed to pull off an “exhibition showcase” this weekend, hosted at The Star in Frisco. It featured the Dallas Prime, a semi-pro team that is now part of the IFA. Not to be confused with the Dallas Pioneros, formerly of the IFA. They faced off against the Arkansas Storm, in what was a lopsided affair between the two teams.
Gameplay
For clarity: the IFA has not publicly released rosters for either team ahead of the matchup. Unfortunately, our coverage of the individual players on the field is hampered due to this factor. For those wanting to re-watch the entire game, you can do so here.
The game itself was dominated by the Dallas Prime. They forced a three and out from Arkansas, and a deep touchdown reception from Julio Robert put the Prime up 7-0.
The Prime were absolutely rolling in the early goings of this game. Their running back, James Taylor, ripped off a few big chunks of yardage to put Dallas in scoring position. Arkansas came away with an interception in the end zone by #7, but handed the ball right back to Dallas. Another deep completion, this time to Clark, put the Prime up 13-0.
Dallas’ defense came up with a big stop in the red zone, forcing an incompletion on 4th and 2. Arkansas got the ball back, though, and finally put something together. A deep pass set the Storm up for a score, and they pulled within six points.
Dallas had a chance to score before halftime, but an interception by Smart for the Storm kept the Prime out of the end zone.
Second Half
The second half wasn’t too pretty for the Storm. Dallas came out firing on all cylinders, with a deep completion, and then a couple of hard runs from #10 put them in the end zone. This gave Dallas a 20-7 lead.
Arkansas had to punt it away, and their secondary continued to struggle. Another big completion to Carter set the Prime up in the red zone, and then a designed QB draw resulted in a touchdown, putting the Prime up by 20.
A turnover on downs by the Storm set Dallas up in excellent field position, and they capitalized. A touchdown pass to Charles Smith gave the Prime a 33-7 lead, and they didn’t look back the rest of the night. The Prime stayed aggressive, piling on the points with another score.
A late interception from the Storm resulted in another touchdown, as the Prime were relentless even in the final seconds. Dallas would ultimately come away with the win, 47-7 over Arkansas.
Takeaways From The Mess
On the bright side, the IFA was able to complete their exhibition game without any major hiccups. They did play at The Star in Frisco, which is an impressive venue for the league to have secured for this game.
Unfortunately, that’s about all the positives we saw out of the IFA’s exhibition matchup on Saturday. For a league that identifies as a “professional” organization, the product is a far cry from it. This past summer’s debacle is exactly that. For example, when you have players – who are participating in a “professional league” – signing injury waivers to clear the IFA of any medical bills…it’s a bad look. Not to mention, players across multiple teams weren’t even paid, let alone received support for their injuries.
That unprofessionalism was on full display in Dallas. To start with, Arkansas was clearly a team thrown together in a hurry. Their uniforms were plain with no branding, and most players were wearing a random assortment of colored socks, undergarments, and helmets. Not to mention: some athletes had tape on the back of their jerseys as numbers. That’s insanity. You rarely even see that in semi-pro these days.
The referees were also quite the crew. It appeared to be just a four man operation, with multiple delays due to a lack of knowledge of the situation at hand. One glaring example of this came in the early third quarter, when a clear forward pass was ruled a fumble – and then the referees had to spend several minutes deciphering what actually happened.
Their broadcast was a mix of pros and cons. One one hand, at least we had a broadcast channel with decent video quality. However, there was absolutely zero commentary, and the poor audio made it very difficult to follow along. The video was streamed on “JeffX Visuals” Youtube channel: his first livestream ever.
It’s also worth noting that the IFA claimed that there would be a Press Conference held, either before or after the game, to announce plans for the 2026 season. That never happened.
Arkansas Storm Fiasco
A lot of credit needs to be given to the players who decided to still trot out there, despite the conditions. It takes guts to do something like that, but for the majority of these athletes, they’ll do whatever it takes to get on the football field.
That’s exactly what it was for the Arkansas Storm, an exhibition team thrown together for this game. Empty, or half-fulfilled promises across the board left these players without support from the league. For example, Arkansas was promised that equipment would be available when they got to their hotel on Wednesday – which wasn’t the case. Not to mention, the team was supposed to be housed in a 3-star hotel, but were abruptly moved to a 1-star hotel right before the report date on Wednesday.
One Storm player, who will remain anonymous, told us:
“Fortunately some of the players, myself included, brought our own pads and helmets. I will say I’m grateful we had a place to lay our heads at night, and some food in our stomachs – but I’ve seen legitimate beer league semi-pro teams have more professionalism and organization than the clown house we as a team walked into this past week. I can’t name a single teammate or coach that was satisfied by any means with how it went and if they say otherwise, they’re lying out of respect for what little we got.”
Team equipment was not provided to the team until the day before kickoff – meaning that the Storm were practicing for two days straight in t-shirts and shorts. When Adams finally provided the Storm with equipment, most of it was moldy – it hadn’t been used in years. Some players brought their own gear with them, but the majority didn’t touch pads until 24 hours until kickoff.
The Storm’s jerseys were also manufactured by the Dallas Prime, hence why some of them had tape for numbers. Jason Adams, who promised to provide the Storm with hotel, food, venue and uniforms, barely did any of that. The hotel was downgraded last minute, the food was cheap and scarce, the venue was solidified by the Storm’s owner himself, and the uniforms were made by the Prime.
Another Arkansas player told us:
“The Storm ownership seems eager to move away from Jason’s support and right this ship when they are a team in Arkansas. I am confident they’ll be a great organization, as long as they handle their own business and not allow the league to handle their business…I am proud of all the guys, all the Arkansas Storm staff and Coach Calcagni and Coy Flynn for at least trying to make this exhibition experience something positive from what could have been a lot worse if we totally relied on Jason Adams.”
Had it not been for the support of Arkansas’ owner in Coy Flynn, alongside the players making things happen on their end, there’s a good chance that this exhibition showcase wouldn’t have happened altogether.
Final Thoughts
It’s been a long road for the IFA over the course of this year, and they have a lot to prove if they want to play in 2026. They’ve lost a plethora of organizations over the past several months.
There’s reasons why a team like the Ohio Valley Ironmen have jumped ship to the Continental Football League. The CoFL has some similarities to the IFA, but features a much more structured model with plans for their 2026 season, headed up by Commissioner Mike Kelly.
The future remains unclear for the International Football Alliance. Empty promises and poor management have left them without much to show for their 2025 campaign. With a lot to get in order for 2026, and an unsteady foundation as is, this could be the last time we see IFA teams take the field at all. Time will tell.
Did you watch the IFA’s Exhibition Game this weekend? What were your thoughts on the production and setup? Let us know down in the comments below, or join the conversation on Discord!
