Will American style football ever become the most popular international sport … competing with soccer, rugby, etc. … in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, New Zealand and other countries outside the USA? American Football is the #1 sport in the USA for many years, but will American football ever become very popular around the world?

The NFL (National Football League) in America would like to expand its American football to other areas of the world. Some people say the NFL would love to have teams in other countries and create an international league.

• The NFL (National Football League) played a regular season football game (sold out) in Wembley Stadium in London this year.  In 2005, the NFL played a regular season game in Mexico City.
• The NFL will likely have another regular season game in Mexico, Germany or Canada next year, and is talking about having many more games in overseas cities in future years.
• The NFL had a ‘development’ league in Europe (NFL Europa or NFL Europe) from 1991 to 2007, with Germany hosting most of the teams. The 6 teams in the European league when the league closed in 2007 were the Amsterdam Admirals, Berlin Thunder, Cologne Centurions, Frankfurt Galaxy, Hamburg Sea Devils and Rhein Fire. Earlier teams were in the United Kingdom and Spain. The league was not profitable, and the NFL has decided to focus on playing regular season games overseas.
• Pre-season or exhibition games have been played in Mexico and Japan. A pre-season game scheduled for China this past summer was postponed..