NFL owner says ‘there is going to be an international division’: report

The National Football League will reportedly be global.

After several years of experimentation, an anonymous owner told Front Office Sports that the league will have an international division.

“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 said.

The first NFL game held outside the United States was in 2005, when the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers played in Mexico City, and every team has played internationally since, with most games being played overseas.

Rumors have swirled for years that a current team could move to England, but it seems like the NFL would lean toward adding several expansion teams there instead.

The NFL has not expanded since 2002 with the Houston Texans, and not by multiple teams in one year since 1995, when the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars came about.

But the league, already with 32 teams, seems ready for another set of franchises.

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“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,” said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive VP of club business, international, and league events. “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.”

Five NFL games will be held in other countries this upcoming season, just like this past campaign: three games were in England, one was in Germany and the other was in Mexico City. This year, it will be three in the UK and two in Germany.