NFL aiming to play eight international games in 2026

The 2025 regular season schedule includes seven games played outside the United States. The CBA allows for eight such contests per year, and the maximum is expected to be reached for next season.

During an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Gerrit Meier — who serves as the NFL’s managing director of the international department — said the league is “pretty confident” the full eight-game slate for overseas contests will be included for 2026. It is already known that the first-ever game in Australia will take place next year, while a new deal was recently worked out for at least three games to be played in Rio de Janeiro over the next five years. It would also come as no surprise if a return to Dublin were to take place in short order after this year’s debut there.

“The ambition to go international itself, it’s not a new ambition,” Meier said. “I think the point we’ve gotten ourselves to now is, O.K., how has the world changed? And if we truly want to be a global sport, what are the different elements that go into that? And we’ve seen that just having a game, that’s not enough. Just having media, that’s not enough. So just talking about the various elements, we realized there’s something bigger.”

Indeed, the NFL’s efforts to grow the game internationally have included more than just staging games in various cities over several years. As Meier informed Breer, the league is set to open a headquarters in Spain. That will make it the eighth country outside the United States to house such a venue, joining Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, China and Australia in that regard. Madrid will play host to the Dolphins-Commanders game in Week 12 this year.

Commissioner Roger Goodell has named Asia as a potential target

Given the long-running efforts to expand the NFL’s reach in Europe, the possibility of one or more franchises being based there has been a recurring topic of discussion. According to Meier, though, an international team and/or division is not a “front burner” matter at this point. Instead, expanding into other markets — commissioner Roger Goodell has named Asia as a potential target in that respect — remains a clear priority, with Europe still a high priority.

On that note, Meier confirmed the league is still interested in holding games in France in the future. He added Italy is another country the NFL is “exploring.” With further increases in the total number of overseas games played annually expected, the list of potential destinations for international contests is also likely to grow.