NFL set to play in new country in 2026: teams reportedly selected
Spain will become the sixth country outside the United States to host a regular-season game in 2025, with a seventh following a year later.
The NFL may already have put plans in place for the 2026 International Series, with Australia reportedly the latest country to get in on the football action.
NFL in Australia: teams, venue and date
According to Melbourne’s Herald Sun, the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles are to go head to head at the 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground in October 2026 in the first of three games to be held at the venue over several years.
𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: The #Eagles and #Rams will play in the #NFL’s first ever game in Australia in 2026, according to @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/8YjSdibpCu
— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) February 1, 2025
The report claims the NFL and the government of Victoria state, of which Melbourne is the capital, “have been in secret talks for months,” and that league officials had visited the stadium in August.
The Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers took part in a preseason game in Sydney in 1999, but this would be the first regular-season game played Down Under.
Which countries have hosted NFL games?
Australia looks set to become the seventh country other than the United States to host the NFL. A number have been played in England (London), Mexico (Mexico City) and Germany (Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin), while São Paulo in Brazil put on its first game at the start of the 2024 season (the Eagles defeated the Green Bay Packers).
Away from the International Series, the Buffalo Bills played six regular-season games across the Canadian border at Rogers Center in Toronto between December 2008 and December 2013.
Real Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabéu is confirmed to be hosting Spain’s first game in the 2025 season, with the Miami Dolphins one of the franchises involved.
Chargers likely to host second NFL game in Brazil
The NFL is expected to announce a second game in São Paulo, Brazil for 2025, with the Los Angeles Chargers strongly rumored to be the host team.
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