Why are the Chiefs playing the Dolphins in Germany?

The NFL International Series continues this weekend with the fourth of five games in Europe. The Kansas City Chiefs, who were crowned Super Bowl LVII champions back in February along with MVP Patrick Mahomes will take on the Miami Dolphins at Frankfurt stadium in Germany as the regular season hits the midway point.

Both teams head into the game in a good moment of form and with identical records - the Dolphins top AFC East. moving to 6-2 after last weekend’s win against the Patriots. The Chiefs sit top of AFC West in spite of a harrowing 24-9 thrashing to the Broncos - Denver’s first victory over their rivals since Week 2 of the 2015 season.

Three venues, two cities

Sunday’s game in Frankfurt will be the penultimate of five games programmed in European cities as part of this year’s International Series. London hosted the first three of those - the first, between the Falcons and the Jaguars at Wembley, while Tottenham Hotspur stadium was the venue selected for two fixtures from Week 5 and 6 respectively.

Frankfurt will stage the last two - Chiefs vs Dolphins and Colts vs Patriots, tickets for both games have already sold out. This is the second time that the NFL International Series has stopped off in Germany - last year, the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played in front of a sell-out crowd in Munich. Demand for tickets exceeded all expectations - so much so that organizers could have filled the 75,000-seater Allianz Arena several times over. The interest in NFL games in Germany prompted the league to organize a return this year.

Promoting NFL games outside of the US

This is the 16th edition of the NFL International Series - an initiative to promote American Football around the world. The first regular season NFL game to be held outside North America, between the New York Giants and the Dolphins, was played in London at the new Wembley stadium in October 2007. Wembley continued to host one NFL game per season up until 2011.

In November 2021, the series branched out with Mexico hosting one regular season game. The Houston Texans and Oakland Raiders battled it out at the Azteca in the first NFL game to be played on Mexican soil. Since then, a further four games have taken place south of the border.

Last year, the league announced the International Home Marketing Areas (IHMA) initiative, in which 19 franchises were selected to freely market their team across eight countries. The Los Angeles Rams added New Zealand as their fourth IHMA (along with Australia, China and Mexico) and the Philadelphia Eagles were granted access to Australia, New Zealand and Ghana – the first NFL club to enter a market in Africa.

The NFL recently confirmed Spain (Madrid) and Brazil (Rio) are under review as potential hosts for games in 2024.