The Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1984 to promote amateur soccer and cultural events within the Ethiopian community in the North America. Its goals include providing positive role models for the youth, promoting goodwill between the Ethiopian communities in North America and creating a bridge where people from Ethiopia and
North America can interact in a mutually beneficial manner. In addition to the sports event, the Federation also promotes cultural activities to provide opportunities for Americans to learn more about Ethiopia’s culture and history. Visionary Ethiopians residing in the city of Houston conceived the Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America during the early days of the 1980s. The first tournament was held in the city of Houston with the participation of four clubs (Washington DC, Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta) on April 20, 1984. A year later, the tournament was held in Washington D.C. with more clubs added to the family of ESFNA, and it was at this time elected officers assumed the responsibility of managing the Federation under a new format. A lot has changed since that time, perhaps the most significant of all was the adoption of operating by-laws, rules and regulation of the games and the establishment of a tax-exempt status. Due to an increasing number of new teams that want to join ESFNA, an extensive study is underway to identify ways to accommodate new members since time and logistic considerations have placed constraints on the number of games that can be played during the one-week annual soccer tournament. At some point, there were teams from England and Sweden who were participating actively in ESFNA.
