NFL Plans International Team: Goodell Confirms Expansion Efforts
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During a recent interview with RTL/ntv in Germany, Goodell said there was "no doubt" in his mind that the NFL will eventually have an international team.
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Fox Sports"At some point, there will be NFL teams outside the USA," Goodell said in the interview, which was conducted by former NFL player Markus Kuhn. "I have no doubt that this will happen one day."
ESPNGoodell: 'No doubt' over NFL team outside U.S. Roger Goodell says it is inevitable that the NFL will eventually have a team permanently based outside the United States.
Yahoo SportsGoodell said "there will be teams outside the USA." Plural. So either two teams will move to another country, or the NFL will add two teams.
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And, again, it would be teams. London currently has two NFL-ready stadiums. Given the league's 20-year relationship with England, the most sensible path to an international presence would be expansion to London. And since an odd number of teams (which the NFL had from 1999 through 2001 after the return of the Browns) would require at least one team to have a bye every week of the season, there would likely be two expansion teams — perhaps with both of them based in London.
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CBS Sports"There are markets that could certainly support a team," Goodell said . If the NFL does add a team outside the United States, London seems like the most obvious candidate. The English capital hosted the first regular-season European game in 2007 and has hosted at least one game in every season since, with the exception of 2020, when the NFL didn't hold any international games due to COVID.
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For now, the NFL is more focused on expanding its international schedule. The NFL's international series has been expanding rapidly over the past few years. For more than a decade, London was the only city that hosted an international game, but the NFL has rapidly added more and more cities over the past few years.
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Fox SportsThe NFL has only expanded its presence internationally over Goodell's tenure as commissioner. After starting the NFL International Series in 2007, the league will play a record nine international games in 2026. The league also began its Global Markets Program in 2022, allowing teams to have marketing rights in at least one country. That helped pave the way for the first game to take place in South America in 2024 and the first Oceania NFL game in 2026, along with other countries hosting NFL games for the first time in recent years.
2 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 Yahoo Sports The NFL last expanded in 2002. It's currently the longest stretch in league history without the addition of a new team.
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02 CBS Sports "We're trying to sort of see, could you have multiple locations in Europe where you could have an NFL franchise, because it would be easier as a division," Goodell said .
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- espn
- cbssports
- foxsports
- yahoosports