This year the National Football League will be heading to the English capital for another season. It will be the 100th edition and the first game will be between the Chicago Bears and the Oakland Raiders. The whole competition will end with the 54th Super Bowl, the championship game on February 2, 2020 in Miami, Florida.

The League confirmed the dates, teams and venues for the previously announced games to be played in London. The London Games will start at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, then they will continue at the Wembley Stadium. In total 28 NFL games have taken place in London.

On the inauguration on October 6, the Oakland Riders will host the Chicago Bears at the new Tottenham Stadium, the first NFL stadium built outside of the United States. Only one week after that, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will face the Carolina Panthers, playing for the first time in London.

Two weeks later, the games will continue at Wembley Stadium with a game between the Los Angeles Rams (the champions) against the Cincinnati Bengals on October 27. After that, the Jacksonville Jaguars will be against the Houston Texas. 

British Stadiums: Tottenham and Wembley

In 2015, the NFL announced they will have at least two games a year in a location outside of the USA. They signed a 10-year partnership with the new stadium. The place features a retractable field with an artificial grass surface especially made for the NFL games. 

Daniel Levy, chairman of Tottenham Hotspur, said this is a great opportunity for them to be an entertainment venue, bringing together the British Premier League and the American NFL for the first time. Plus, the economic impact on the area will be great. The only problem is building the stadium has taken so long that there might be some delays. Hopefully, it will be finished by October. The problem is that if they need the authorities’ approval and safety certificate. 

The second British venue is its National Soccer Stadium, Wembley, which has to step in as a second host for the games. If Tottenham is not ready by October, all the games will be played at Wembley.

Mexican venue

As well as in London, the NFL games will also be played in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico as it was planned last year but was cancelled due to poor building conditions. Fortunately, all that has been solved and the League returns to the Azteca Stadium in Mexico during November for a final game.

The dates for the London games will be the following:

  • Oct 6: Chicago Bears against Oakland Raiders (Tottenham Stadium).
  • Oct 13: Carolina Panthers against Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Tottenham Stadium).
  • Oct 27: Cincinnati Bengals against Los Angeles Rams (Wembley Stadium).
  • Nov 18: Houston Texas against Jacksonville Jaguars (Wembley Stadium).

Certainly, the NFL Games are one of the most exciting sports competition in the world. According to Fitforbeach, the players go through an unbelievably hard training so the competition is fierce. Fans from all over the world follow their favourite American football teams from television. This year, British fans will have the chance of attending to some of the games that are taking place in England. Plus, those in Mexico will be able to see the final game. This is all part of partnership between the NFL and the different stadiums to make the NFL more international.