Friday will mark the NFL’s first game in South America when the Eagles and Packers play in Brazil. The 2024 campaign will also feature regular season contests in London and Munich later on, with the league showing interest in other markets down the road. Ongoing international expansion is set to remain an NFL priority.

Up to eight games per season are permitted in international markets, but the potential for that figure to rise has long been a talking point. Increasing the NFL’s footprint in Europe, South America and potentially Australia is a target, and the league’s first game in Madrid will take place in 2025. Paris and Dublin are other cities being looked into as potential hosts.

“We want the world to know we’re coming, that we’re bringing football,” commissioner Roger Goodell said during an appearance on the Pat McAfee show (video link). “Our clubs have agreed to play up to eight regular-season games. We have expectations that will go well beyond that. We think we’ll be [at] seven next year, we’re already going to Spain next year, we’ll be back in Mexico I hope by next year, so we’re really excited where the future is for us on an international basis.”

Indeed, a return to Azteca Stadium in Mexico City will be feasible once its renovations are complete. London has remained a staple of the NFL’s international series (especially in the case of the Jaguars) dating back to its inception in 2007. With league expansion including a foreign-based team/division not viewed as being imminent, it would come as no surprise if attention continued to be focused on making inroads with international markets and fanbases. Reducing the years between mandated overseas games from eight years to four has come up, and no teams opposed the potential for nine international games taking place in 2025.

League executive Peter O’Reilly said (via Mark Maske of the Washington Post) the NFL is committed to Brazil “for the long haul.” Games being played there could therefore become a regular occurrence in addition to other overseas contests pending unforeseen issues with Friday’s game. Overall, the scale of the league’s international operation should be expected to continue in the years leading up to flag football making its Olympic debut in 2028.

Sunday marked the first of two NFL games played in Germany in 2023, in addition to three played in London earlier in the year. Continuation of contests being held in both locations can be expected for years to come.

Munich hosted the league’s first regular season game played in Germany last season, and Frankfurt was the site of the Week 9 Dolphins-Chiefs matchup. The same will be true next week when the Colts play the Patriots. As commissioner Roger Goodell noted when speaking publicly, though, Berlin is now in consideration to host future games. In any event, trips to Germany are set to continue.

“We have every intention to continue to play here,” Goodell told a group of fans in advance of Sunday’s game, via Ken Maguire of the Associated Press. “You’ve been an incredible part of our growth, you’ve been part of our history of growing our game globally. We’re going to continue to play here in some fashion.”

The NFL is set to play one game in Munich next season, and another (likely in Frankfurt) in 2025. As Goodell noted, Düsseldorf could join Berlin in being chosen as a host city down the road. That would give the league an expanded list of venues to choose from in the International Series, but further growth in that respect is in the works. Goodell confirmed at least one other, new, country will likely play host to a game in 2024. The league has conducted fact-finding missions in Spain and Brazil, so they would represent logical destinations in the short-term future.

Goodell was, unsurprisingly, asked about the possibility of an NFL team being established overseas. He stated no plans are in place on that front, but the addition of a 17th regular season game has produced a tangible desire to make international games a fixture for the league. A future in which all clubs play eight contests at home, eight on the road and one in a foreign market annually is on the NFL’s radar.

Plenty of the league’s decision-making with respect to Germany will of course depend on its evaluation of the pair of Frankfurt games in 2023. As things stand, though, that city is slated to be one of many which will host regular season contests on a routine basis for the foreseeable future.

Week 5 saw the Jaguars play their second straight game in London as a continuation of this year’s NFL International Series. As the league continues to stage regular season contests overseas and explore new markets, the possibility remains that games played in foreign locations becomes a regular fixture for all teams.

With a 17-game schedule in place, many have pointed to an arrangement being made down the road in which teams play eight games at home and on the road, along with one international contest. Expansion or relocation seeing a full-time team established in London – or even an all-European division – remains on the NFL’s radar, but for the time being a likelier scenario would see all teams playing a single contest per season outside of the U.S.

“I think both or either of those paths… is in the realm of possibility,” NFL EVP Peter O’Reilly said when asked about further additions to the international schedule. “And I think it just is a testament to what we’re seeing in these markets. The passionate fan response. The great partnerships with stadiums and government officials in these markets. So, that’s why we’re doing this diligence around the opportunity to potentially expand number of games played or have the capacity and the infrastructure in place if there were a scenario in the future where there was potential relocation or as discussed maybe even expansion” (h/t Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk).

2023 will see one more game played in London, followed by two in Germany. An increase in overseas games would, of course, require new markets in future seasons. As O’Reilly recently noted, the league has conducted fact-finding missions in Spain and Brazil to explore the possibility of playing games there. The Dolphins have marketing rights in both countries, while the same is true of the Bears in Spain. Other potential sites are under consideration as well, though.

O’Reilly also mentioned (via Mark Maske of the Washington Post) France and Australia as hypothetical locations for NFL games. Logistics in the latter country in particular would be a notable challenge to overcome, and no league officials have been sent to conduct due diligence as of yet. If the NFL remains intent on making international contests an annual staple for all teams, however, it will be worth watching how aggressive the league is in the future with respect to finding new foreign markets.

Week 4 will begin the 2023 season’s run of international games in the NFL, with a trio of contests in England and a pair in Germany. The idea of regular season contests in new foreign markets is currently being explored.

The NFL has sent officials to Spain and Brazil to “investigate the possibility” of playing there, per executive vice president Peter O’Reilly. Regular season games could be scheduled as early as 2024, he added, depending on the success of the league’s fact-finding missions and the feasibility of playing games in Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, specifically.

“That’s the diligence that we do constantly,” O’Reilly said during an appearance on the Adam Schefter Podcast. “What is the stadium like here? Could we play a game here? What does the support look like? So we’re not there yet in terms of timing on that. But we are spending time in those markets, building relationships and looking at the stadia there.”

In the wake of last year’s debut Germany game, Spain was listed as one of the European markets the league was interested in exploring regarding new hosts. Two teams – the Bears and Dolphins – have international marketing rights there, meaning they would be logical choices to take part in a game played in Spain in the near future. Stadiums being explored as possible host sites include the iconic Santiago Bernabeu, home to Real Madrid.

The Dolphins are the lone NFL team with marketing rights in Brazil, a country which, like Spain, has yet to host a game. Given the success of the league’s expanding international series, though, it would come as no surprise if at least one of the two countries being looked into was granted hosting rights sooner than later. Brazil and Spain are each home to one active NFL player (Bears kicker Cairo Santos and former Eagles draftee JJ Arcega-Whiteside, who is currently unsigned).

“Brazil and Spain are two strong markets and two important markets,” O’Reilly added. “And importantly, there are also markets that clubs are interested in… Marrying where clubs are now building their fan base is important.”

O’Reilly also mentioned Australia is on the league’s radar as a potential destination for regular season games, but logistics on that front represent more of a roadblock than they do for Europe and South America. In the immediate future, attention will soon turn to London and Frankfurt for their role in the 2023 International Series, but new locations for NFL games could soon be in place.

The league’s 2017 International Series came to a close with the Patriots’ 33-8 win over Oakland in Mexico City in Week 11. The NFL is already looking ahead to the 2018 slate of games, however, as the MMQB’s Albert Breer writes. 

Next season’s series is poised to be one of the most important to date with the opening of a new stadium designed specifically for American football. Breer writes, “Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League opens its new 64,000-seat stadium next August, at an estimated cost of 400 million pounds. Ten million pounds (about $13.3 million U.S.) is coming directly from the NFL. In turn, the place will have locker rooms built for a football team, facilities for coaches and cheerleaders, and a sunk FieldTurf football field under a retractable grass surface for soccer that will allow for a conventional fan experience for both, without having to tarp seats for football.”

The fact that the NFL is helping finance a stadium in London should give plenty of indication about its future overseas. By teaming up with Tottenham, Breer notes the league is looking to dig into the Premier League culture and should a team decide to move to London in the next five to ten years, they will have an obvious home waiting for them. The NFL’s goal is to have a team in London in 2022 to mark the 15-year anniversary of the International Series. This is a strong move to realizing that goal.

Though there is no confirmation the NFL is looking at Tottenham as a possible home for a team in the future, the writing is on the wall.