The NFL will host a regular-season game in Madrid during the 2025 season, the league announced Friday.
NFL owners voted in December to increase the number of international games each year from four to eight starting in 2025. The first of those extra games is to be played at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Spain.
“As we all know, this is a global city of culture, the entertainment arts and certainly a city with a rich sports history,” said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president of club business, international and league events.
“We couldn’t be more excited to bring the best of the best of our teams, our star players to more than 14 million passionate fans in Spain and to partner with one of the greatest global football clubs in Real Madrid O’Reilly added.
Participating teams are still to be determined, but O’Reilly said the designated home team will likely come from the AFC. He noted that the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins are already part of the league’s current global market program in Spain.
O’Reilly also said that while the league is focused on the 2025 game, “we are committed to Madrid” for a long-term partnership.
“We can learn from each other. We can help each other. We can bring our collective fan bases together,” O’Reilly said of the Real Madrid partnership. “Our athletes love world football, their athletes love our game. So from a sporting point of view, but also from a cultural point of view, it’s a big moment.”
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez also commented on the significance.
“The arrival of the National Football League at the Santiago Bernabeu is a major event in the history of sports,” said Perez. “This strategic alliance between Real Madrid and an organization with the prestige of the NFL will give a boost to our brands on a global scale. It will be enthusiastically welcomed by millions of people on all continents and it is an honor to embark on this journey together.”
NFL executives hope the partnership will help grow football games in Spain. They also hope it will lead to eventual NFL talent evaluation opportunities. O’Reilly noted that teams have a provision that allows a 17th practice squad spot strictly for international players.
“The international pathway for players is critical,” O’Reilly said of the league’s desire to identify and develop international athletes capable of transitioning to college and professional games.
The NFL holds a scouting convention in London, and while there are no current plans for a convention in Madrid, O’Reilly did not rule out a future event of this nature. He described the Santiago Bernabeu stadium’s architecture and technology as state-of-the-art and said he believed NFL teams could learn from the stadium’s planning and design for their future construction projects.
Friday’s announcement is the latest step in the NFL’s plan to grow the game internationally. The league announced Monday that the Philadelphia Eagles will open the 2024 regular season in Sao Paulo, Brazil, at Corinthians Arena.
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This game will be the first game of the regular season in Brazil.
The game in Brazil will mark the fifth continent to host an NFL game. Additionally, it will be one of five regular season games to be played internationally in 2024, with three in London and one game in Munich.
In January, the NFL announced that the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars will each play games in London, and the Carolina Panthers will host a game in Munich.
The league does not have a game scheduled for Mexico City as the Estadio Azteca is currently undergoing renovations.
O’Reilly said on Friday there was “nothing imminent” about plans to expand the international series into Asia or Australia.
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