Finally! REAL Football comes to Europe! London to host NFL game

Sports & Recreation Forum

London to host 1st NFL game in Europe

Associated Press Writer

LONDON - London will hold the NFL's first regular-season game outside North America this year, the start of a campaign to take American football to a global audience.

"There's great history of NFL football in London, and British fans have been great fans of football over the years," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday. "We're confident that this game is going be a great success in London and will be a great foundation to play more games there going forward."

The opponents have yet to be announced, but the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants are believed to be front-runners for the game. The Dolphins, but not the Giants, are one of six NFL teams the league identified as potential home teams; they would give up a home game in Miami to host the contest in London.

"They are two of the teams that have expressed an interest and we'll narrow it down to which two teams will generate the most enthusiasm for the fans in London and the broader U.K.," Goodell said.

The most likely venue is the new 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium, which will open this spring after years of delays. The other candidate is 82,000-seat Twickenham, home of English rugby.

"We're looking at both venues in terms of their readiness," said Marc Waller, vice president of NFL International. "It's important that we understand terms of readiness of both stadiums and then a financial bidding process will also ensue."

The game will be held between late September and mid-October.

Goodell will announce the teams, venue and date before the Feb. 4 Super Bowl in Miami.

NFL owners voted in October to play up to two games outside the United States every season for the next five years. The London game will be the only overseas contest in 2007.

Germany, Canada and Mexico have been identified as the other top markets for NFL games outside the United States.

"We eliminated Toronto after agreeing with the Canadian Football League that we wouldn't go there because it was already hosting the Grey Cup," Goodell said. "Mexico was discussed, as well as Duesseldorf and Hamburg."

The NFL staged its first regular-season game outside the United States in 2005. The Arizona Cardinals played the San Francisco 49ers before a crowd of 103,467 in Mexico City.

London hosted several NFL American Bowl preseason games in the 1980s and 1990s. The city also had the London Monarchs in the World League of American Football_ now NFL Europe — but the team folded.

Goodell said fans have reacted positively to the league's overseas plan, even though it means some teams will lose a scheduled home game.

"There are fans here that we think will like the idea and respond to it because it puts your city on a global stage and the city will be showed as a world class city itself," he said.

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-HECK!

Sorry but the fans will most likely be at White Hart Lane, Emirates, Boylene ground watching REAL football you know where you have to use your foot hence the name football.

I just can't see it being popular we had the NFL europe thing and it was a disaster Barcelona dityched the dragons first and Glasgow and Edinburgh were arguing about who did NOT have to hold the games, and the league folded due to lack of intrest. Bringing bigger teams will not make a huge diffrence.

The other problem is that Rugby which will is more popular than the NFL will being staging it's world cup in September and October and as England are the current world champs if they are playing on TV the same day as the NFL game you are going to get even less butts in those seats.

Gotta say the last sentence is a little demeaning saying the game will put London on a global satge and show it as a world class city, good idea becvause hardly anybody has heard of London and I am sure it will be dying for some much needed exposure/

NFL Europe sucks because they are the crap players who can't even make the practice squad on regular NFL teams.

I think they can pack a stadium that one game.

-HECK!

I would seriously doubt you will get 90,000 Brits showing up for an NFL game. It's just not a game that appeals to the British public.

There are not a lot of American sports that are popular in the UK Basketball is probably the most popular American sport things like baseball and NFL don't really have that much of a following over here.

NFL is perseved as a crap version of Rugby by most English people, me included I'm afraid.

In a city like London, so stuck up in its own image that it has to be classified as seperate from every other part of Southern England, where for over 100 years Football/soccer has been the biggest sport going it is highly unlikely that NFL will be recieved that well by Londoners.

You will likely get the Rugby crowd in to watch just to see what it is like but your not going to get many people turn up, especially if the NFL match is on the same day as a football match.