In 2024, the NFL International Games will take place in London, with the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings taking part.
They will play three games in the English capital of the upcoming season as “home” teams alongside the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Bears and Vikings will host the two games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium because the Jags had already committed to playing at Wembley.
The NFL will visit Munich, Germany once more in 2024, with the Carolina Panthers serving as the home team.
The NFL has confirmed it will also play a regular season game in South America for the first time in 2024, after Brazil was chosen as a host country ahead of Spain.
Before the 2024 NFL schedule is revealed, the host team for that match in Sao Paulo’s Corinthians Arena will be announced in the upcoming months.
When the schedule is made public, the teams against whom the five international matches will be played, as well as the dates and kickoff times, will be disclosed.
“They’re fantastic teams, it’s really exciting,” NFL UK general manager Henry Hodgson said to BBC Sport. This year is different for the Bears and Vikings since they are a member of the NFL’s global markets program, an external initiative that enables teams to make investments and expand their fan bases in areas of their choosing.
“Those teams have accomplished a lot in the UK over the past few years, including watch parties and a ladies’ flag football program, all without the guarantee of a match here at the conclusion. It indicates that these teams really mean it when they claim they’re devoted to the UK.
“Now having a big moment like a game here is a really good opportunity for them to do more and to focus that engagement around, like the Jags have done before them.”
The first NFL franchise to commit to regularly scheduling international games was the Jacksonville Jaguars. Since 2013, they have participated in every London series, and in 2023 they made history by being the first team to play two regular season games—one outside of the US and one inside—while winning both of them.
The contract they now have in place to play Wembley annually ends in 2024. There are still talks about extending that agreement.
In 2023, there were five international matches; Frankfurt hosted two of them while Azteca Stadium in Mexico was undergoing renovations. The NFL has announced that games will return to Mexico after that work is finished.
The NFL teams cast their votes last month to allow the league to schedule up to eight games abroad per season starting in 2025. Games may be held in the UK, Mexico, Germany, and Brazil.
Could more games be held in London given Tottenham’s agreement with the NFL, which they extended last year to 2029, to host “a minimum of two” games per season?
“In the near term, the more likely outcome is to do more of going to new markets and giving them a chance to experience what us fans in the UK have been able to for some time now,” Hodgson said.
“The idea that fans in Brazil and possibly other European regions will soon have those options is quite thrilling.
“But there are discussions happening at the moment about how the UK can potentially host other games as part of that programme.”