In most parts of the world, if you say the word "football" people assume you are referring to soccer, the most popular and most widely followed sport in the world. However, American football is starting to spark more interest overseas. The National Football League actively promotes American-style football overseas, sending players as ambassadors and holding pre-season games in Europe, Mexico and Japan. Games are broadcast in many countries and the Super Bowl is broadcast to almost every country in the world.
American football is played in almost every continent on the planet including North and South America, Asia, Europe and the Pacific Rim nations. The International Federation of American Football is the official international governing body of American Football and oversees 45 member organizations. Beginning in 1999, the International Federation of American Football has also sponsored a world cup of American football with Japan taking the honors in both 1999 and 2003.
American football has also grown in popularity in Mexico, where many households are able to watch games on American television stations. There has been such interest in American football in Mexico that the NFL opened an office in Mexico City in 1997 to supervise fan development, marketing, public relations and special events. The NFL also publishes a Spanish-language web site targeted to Mexican fans.
American football is also gaining popularity in Europe. In 1991, the National Football League backed a European league called the World League of Football. From that emerged NFL Europe, a six-team league that serves as a spring developmental league for National Football League teams in the United States. Five of NFL Europe's teams are based in Germany and one is in the Netherlands. The National Football League not only uses the NFL Europe to develop new players, but also to develop and test new rules and regulations.
American football has always been popular in Canada although Canada does have its own Canadian Football League which plays with slightly different rules than American football. However, the National Football League continues to reach out to Canadian fans. For Super Bowl XL, held in Detroit, just across the border from the Canadian city of Windsor, the National Football League held special events specifically for Canadian fans including a special train that transported Canadian fans to Windsor to view the game at an arena there. The National Football League also publishes a website for Canadian fans that focuses on the progress and statistics of Canadian-born players.
Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Football, Recreation, and Games
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
British American Football SUPERBOWL
In the same way as the English Premier Soccer League wish to take their League abroad for the 39th game, the National Football League (NFL) of America is repeating their visit to the Wembley to play an International series game between New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers. The match is due to take place on 26th October and it is understood that matches of this nature will be repeated until at least 2010. The first game last year took place between the eventual 'Superbowl' Champions, New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins.
The two teams selected for this years match are apparently high class entertaining teams and have been purposely selected to put on a top class show for the ever growing number of British fans. The two teams are high on attacking ability, or to use American parlance, offensive ability and it promises to be a high scoring game with little regard to defensive stratagems. It seems like the two teams are managed by the American equivalents of Kevin Keegan, if so then it should live up to expectations.
The last game at Wembley between the 'Giants' and the 'Dolphins' was a low scoring match in which the ‘Giants’ won by 13 points to 10, but the NFL Directors want this next match to be high on octane a crowd pleaser. The teams seem under orders to score at will.
The Saints and the Chargers both have 'Superbowl' aspirations this year and will hope to follow in the footsteps of the 'Giants'; both teams are expected to make the ‘play-offs’ this season. If either team win ‘Superbowl' this year, then Wembley can expect a huge interest from other teams to visit in the next two years.
The big surprise for many is that over half million NFL fans from the UK have applied for tickets already. 45,000 tickets went on sale in May and they were sold in 90 minutes and a further 15,000 went on sale in June and similarly they were sold in just half an hour. The final sale of the remaining 20,000 or so tickets will go on sale in September and if the organisers have any sense, they should increase the price by 500% as they will seemingly still sell.
The obvious popularity of an American sport over here, that not too many people understand, played by men wearing protective clothing and where the team changes whenever a try, oops... sorry...Touchdown is scored, is a difficult thing for traditionalist UK sports followers to understand. But there is no doubt that tradition counts for nothing and this new wave of NFL London is surely only the start of things to come.
Rod Rowley is a tennis and golf journalist who has worked for many large UK media publications.
The two teams selected for this years match are apparently high class entertaining teams and have been purposely selected to put on a top class show for the ever growing number of British fans. The two teams are high on attacking ability, or to use American parlance, offensive ability and it promises to be a high scoring game with little regard to defensive stratagems. It seems like the two teams are managed by the American equivalents of Kevin Keegan, if so then it should live up to expectations.
The last game at Wembley between the 'Giants' and the 'Dolphins' was a low scoring match in which the ‘Giants’ won by 13 points to 10, but the NFL Directors want this next match to be high on octane a crowd pleaser. The teams seem under orders to score at will.
The Saints and the Chargers both have 'Superbowl' aspirations this year and will hope to follow in the footsteps of the 'Giants'; both teams are expected to make the ‘play-offs’ this season. If either team win ‘Superbowl' this year, then Wembley can expect a huge interest from other teams to visit in the next two years.
The big surprise for many is that over half million NFL fans from the UK have applied for tickets already. 45,000 tickets went on sale in May and they were sold in 90 minutes and a further 15,000 went on sale in June and similarly they were sold in just half an hour. The final sale of the remaining 20,000 or so tickets will go on sale in September and if the organisers have any sense, they should increase the price by 500% as they will seemingly still sell.
The obvious popularity of an American sport over here, that not too many people understand, played by men wearing protective clothing and where the team changes whenever a try, oops... sorry...Touchdown is scored, is a difficult thing for traditionalist UK sports followers to understand. But there is no doubt that tradition counts for nothing and this new wave of NFL London is surely only the start of things to come.
Rod Rowley is a tennis and golf journalist who has worked for many large UK media publications.
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