More international games are coming to the NFL, and that means going to more cities around the globe.
The NFL will play a record nine international games this fall, and owners approved a measure to add up to two more overseas games in 2027 at their spring meeting this week.
This year, the NFL will play games on four continents and in eight countries − Australia, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Mexico and Spain, in addition to the United States − and the league has designs on cracking other markets soon.
In a conference call to discuss this year’s schedule last week, NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder said the Week 1 international game is likely here to stay, and the league sees it as an opportunity to play in far-away markets that require the most extensive travel.
The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers open the season with a Thursday night game in Australia this year, giving them extra rest before Week 2. In 2024-25, the league played Week 1 Friday games in Brazil.
“As we continue to expand our eyes on a more far eastern horizon, whether it’s Singapore, Abu Dhabi, China – any of the other things that you’ve all read about where we might be looking to play a game someday – a Week 1 international, call it benchmark foothold, is probably something that’s going to be pretty consistent,” NFL vice president for broadcasting planning Mike North said. “In some of these international venues we’re considering, given their stadium availability, it might be tough to do that in NFL Week 9.”
The NFL will play its first-ever mid-season game in South America this year, with the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys scheduled to play in Rio de Janeiro in Week 3 – neither team has a bye after that game – after routinely playing in-season games in Europe since 2007 and Mexico since 2016.
The Detroit Lions will play their first international game this fall since 2015 when they host the New England Patriots in a Week 10 game in Munich, Germany, on Nov. 15. They previously played games in London in 2014-15.
The Lions volunteered to host the Germany game – teams are required to give up a home game in a year they have nine home dates at least once every eight years – after gaining international marketing rights to the country (along with Austria and Switzerland) in 2024.
The Lions also have international marketing rights in Brazil and Canada, a country where the league currently has no designs on playing games despite it’s proximity to the U.S. and being what NFL executive vice president of club business and league events Peter O’Reilly called “our strongest [international] market in terms of just the passion and the fandom there.”
“Games there are not necessarily imminent, but there’s a lot of efforts going in, in Canada from everything we’re doing at the grassroots level with flag – Canada’s a very big country in flag both on the men’s and women’s side and all the way up,” O’Reilly said at the NFL’s annual meeting in March. “There’s nothing that precludes us from playing games there to answer that question directly, and we see the partnership as really strong. And growing the game in Canada from the grassroots up is good for the NFL, it’s good for the CFL, it’s good for the sport overall.”
The NFL is actively trying to grow football at a grassroots level in its other international markets.
The league hosted its first-ever game in Ireland last fall, has championed flag football as an Olympic sport debuting in the 2028 Los Angeles Games, and teams that have international marketing rights as part of the league’s Global Markets Program are required to invest time and money building their brand awareness in those countries through programs like fan events and flag football development.
Currently, NFL teams have marketing rights in 22 countries as part of the Global Markets Program, including Ghana, Nigeria, Colombia, New Zealand, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.
Not all of those countries are imminent candidates to host an NFL game, given the stadium and infrastructure needed to make an event work.
But O’Reilly said Italy, the newest entry to league’s Global Markets Program – the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints were granted marketing rights there this year – and other countries could be destinations down the road, when it’s possible the league gets to 16 international games with one for nearly every team every year.
“We’ve laid out a long-range plan that includes, in a phased way, 13 markets that we think that we need to be successful in,” O’Reilly said. “This now gives us 12 of those 13 with clubs having rights in them. The one which is probably a further out market for us but doesn’t have a club yet is India. So we’ll see whether that’s a precursor. We’ve got a lot to focus on in the current markets we’re in, in terms of games, but having clubs in there, working alongside us in Italy will certainly accelerate that process should we be prepared for a future game there.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Next up on NFL’s expanding international slate: Abu Dhabi? China?
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
