Roger Goodell: 'No doubt' the NFL will have teams outside the US

The NFL's global expansion efforts got a shot in the arm yesterday, when commissioner Roger Goodell committed to the league eventually having teams based outside the United States.

"At some point, there will be NFL teams outside the USA," he told former NFL player Markus Kuhn in an interview on RTL/ntv. "I have no doubt that this will happen one day."

While Goodell has touched on the topic several times before, his use of the word "teams" is what has got people talking.

Goodell: "Multiple locations in Europe"

A one-team international setup presents several logistical challenges, with travel being among the biggest.

Goodell addressed that subject in 2022, when he floated that the league was considering creating an entire division hosted overseas.

"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," he said at the time.

A cluster of teams sharing a similar time zone doesn't solve the issue, but it makes it a little easier to manage.

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Which countries could host an NFL team?

There are a record nine international games outside the US in 2026, and the league has approved an increase to ten in 2027.

The UK, Germany, Mexico, Canada, and Brazil have all hosted more than one regular-season NFL game outside the US, with London accounting for the bulk.

Ireland featured for the first time last year, and Australia and France host their first-ever regular-season games in 2026, with Melbourne and Paris both making their NFL debuts.

Spain gets its second taste of the league this year, returning to Madrid after hosting the country's first-ever regular-season game there last November.

While there is no shortage of candidates to host a team, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain are the obvious fits given Goodell's mention of a European division.

And as far as London is concerned, Goodell has already said the city could support more than one club.

"There's no question that London could support not just one franchise, I think two franchises. I really believe that," he said back in 2022.

"That's from a fan perspective, from a commercial standpoint, from a media standpoint. I think [London] has proven that."

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A Super Bowl hosted outside the US?

In yesterday's interview, Goodell even revisited the idea of hosting a Super Bowl outside the US.

"There are definitely international cities that could host something like that," he said. "But we would like to see an NFL team in such a city first."

His words echo those of NFL EVP Peter O'Reilly, who specifically mentioned Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as a potential future venue earlier this year.

There's clearly still a long way to go in all of this, but momentum is gathering.

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