NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell revealed on Wednesday that the two host cities for the International Series games in Germany over the next four seasons will be Munich and Frankfurt. The league will stage regular-season games in Munich and Frankfurt over the next four years.
"We are very pleased to welcome Munich and Frankfurt to the NFL family and are excited to reward our fans in Germany for their passion by bringing them the spectacle of regular-season NFL football," said Goodell. "We look forward to staging our first game in Germany at FC Bayern Munich's fantastic stadium later this year and to exploring areas of broader collaboration with the Bundesliga."
The NFL International Series was launched in 2007 and has since included 30 games in London and three in Mexico City. There will be five international games during the 2022 regular season, with three in London and one each in Munich and Mexico City. The Jacksonville Jaguars will be the home team for a game at Wembley Stadium in London; the home teams for the other four games will be announced in the coming weeks. The opponents, dates and times will be confirmed at the time of the full 2022 schedule reveal later in the spring.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have previously played three times in the International Series, all in London, could potentially be in line for a trip to Munich next fall. With the new 17th game in the regular season to be played in NFC cities in 2022, giving each team in the conference nine home games, NFC teams will also be the host to the International Series contests. Last spring, the league instituted a new scheduling formula for international games, with each of the NFL's 32 teams getting to host a game abroad over the next eight seasons.
In addition, the Buccaneers were one of four teams granted access to Germany as a new International Home Marketing Area (IHMA) in December. In all, 26 teams were granted IHMAs in eight different countries. The IHMA initiative and the International Series are not directly linked; however, the NFL indicated that it would make an effort to schedule teams for International Series games in their own IHMAs.
Fans can register their interest in attending the 2022 game in Munich and sign up to receive additional information at www.nfl.com/munich.
The games in Munich will be played at FC Bayern Munich Stadium, home of the most successful German soccer team in history. FC Bayern Munich has won 30 national championships, 20 domestic cups and six UEFA Champion League titles. The two games in Frankfurt will be held at Frankfurt Stadium.
