NFL franchise in London possible as owner makes 'international division' claim

03 April 2023 , 16:28

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Ever since the NFL began taking games outside the United States, talk has gathered pace about a franchise being based overseas, but one NFL owner has now sensationally claimed an entire international division could be on the cards.

It's a sign of the league's growing appeal that this year five of the 17 weeks during the regular season will have an international game, so it wouldn't appear to represent a huge leap to think the next step would be a franchise based overseas.

Those suggestions have been quietened in recent years, but in a report published by Front Office Sports, one franchise owner went a step further by suggesting not just a club but a division could be based overseas.

“We don’t know if it’s going to happen in two years, five years, or whenever, but there’s going to be an international division,” the owner told Front Office Sports.

Despite the claim, any imminent move would appear unlikely, the logistics required to move one franchise to another city would be huge, moving one - and potentially four - overseas would represent a monumental operation. The alternative would be four brand new teams, based overseas, but that would require new owners and an expansion taking the NFL from 32 to 36 teams which would have a knock on effect on Play-Off qualification criteria.

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TV deals and Collective Bargaining Agreements with the players are currently in place until at least 2030 and any significant change to schedules may need to be factored into the next set of negotiations.

NFL franchise in London possible as owner makes 'international division' claim

Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played in the first ever NFL game to be played in Germany last season (Steve Luciano/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

Nevertheless, overseas NFL appears to be very much on the agenda for Commissioner Roger Goodell and the 32 current owners.

“I think what we are focused on is building capacity so if there were that opportunity — whether a club wanted to consider relocation or potentially looking at expansion — we are in that mode,” Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive VP of club business, international, & league events is quoted in the report as saying.

”In London, where we’ve been for a long time, and now in Germany, we’re making sure we’ve got the stadium partners, the governmental partners, and the fan support to sustain that possibility.”

Patrick Mahomes and the Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs will play in Germany in 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

It has been more than 20 years since the last expansion team were added to the league while you have to go further back to 1995 for the last time two new teams were added at the same time.

Houston (2002), Carolina (1995) and Jacksonville (1995) are the newest NFL franchises. Given London's regularity in hosting, the assumption has always been that is where any expansion may start, but the report's claim suggests new cities and countries would need to be lined up and potentially host an International game to gauge the appeal of such a possibility.

After Mexico City - which will return to the International Series rotation in 2026 - hosted the first ever NFL regular season game to be played overseas in 2005, a huge step was take in 2007 when the New York Giants faced the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium.

That was the first time London hosted a regular season game and the NFL has thrived in the United Kingdom ever since. Following six seasons of one game, the International Series expanded to two in 2013 and then three between 2014 and 2016.

One year later, the NFL hosted four games across two stadiums as Twickenham joined Wembley on the rotation, before Tottenham Hotspur's gleaming new home hosted it's first games in 2019. The Premier League club have a 10-year agreement to host at least two games, while Jacksonville Jaguars have a wimilar deal with Wembley which was announced in 2015.

Mexico has hosted games, while in 2022 the NFL help it's first games in Germany when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Seattle Seahawks at Munich's Allianz Arena and in 2023 New England and Kansas City will host games in in the country.