The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional indoor American football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in 1987 season making it the third longest-running professional football league in North America after the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the National Football League (NFL) until the AFL closed in 2019. The AFL played a formerly proprietary code known as arena football, a form of indoor American football played on a 66-by-28 yard field (about a quarter of the surface area of an NFL field), with rules encouraging offensive performance, resulting in a faster-paced and higher-scoring game. The sport was invented in the early 1980s and patented by Jim Foster, a former executive of the United States Football League (USFL) and the NFL. Each of the league's 32 seasons culminated in the ArenaBowl, with the winner being crowned the league's champion for that season. From 2000 to 2009, the AFL had its own developmental league, the af2. The AFL played 22 seasons from 1987 to
La Arena Football League (AFL) fue una liga profesional de fútbol americano en los Estados Unidos. Fue fundada en 1986, pero jugó sus primeros juegos oficiales en la temporada de 1987 haciendo de ella la tercera liga de fútbol profesional más larga en funcionamiento en Norteamérica después de la Canadian Football League (CFL) y la National Football League (NFL) hasta que la AFL cerró en 2019. El deporte fue inventado a principios de la década de 1980 y patentado por Jim Foster, un ex ejecutivo de la United States Football League (USFL) y la NFL. Cada una de las 32 temporadas de la liga culminó en el ArenaBowl, con el ganador siendo coronado campeón de la liga para la temporada de 2000.